Justice

In a narrow sense, it refers to the attitude, manner and effect in men’s handling of concrete questions, which should be objective, fair, decent and impartial, i.e., justified and correct. In a wider sense, it means social justice, means “fairness and justice”, and refers to a kind of moral recognition and value evaluation of the rationality of systems and acts in the sphere of politics, economy, law, morality, culture and education, and is embodied in all links of social operation.

The idea of justice has a long history. In ancient China, there was a vision of “Great Harmony” (Datong), where “When the Great Way rules, all under heaven belong to the people”. Han Fei said, “By ‘uprightness’ is implied the sense of duty to stand by the just, the frame of mind to be impartial” (Han Fei Zi—Commentaries on Laozi’s Teachings). Justice has been the ideal pursuit in China for thousands of years. In the West, the idea of justice has been developed over a long period of time. In ancient Greece, Socrates put forth that “Justice is to do good to a friend, evil to an enemy”. Plato listed justice as one of the “four cardinal virtues” and defined it as the fulfillment of one’s duties. Aristotle divided justice into universal justice and particular justice, and connected it with the law. In the Middle Ages, theological justice was pursued, and in the Renaissance, the justice of the social contract was put forth. In contemporary times, Nozick proposed five forms of justice, i.e., legal, moral, retributive, promise-keeping, and disinterested. In Theory of Justice, American philosopher Rawls proposed two principles of justice: one is the application of equality in the distribution of various basic rights and duties, i.e., the principle of civil liberty and equality; the other is that in the case of inequality of wealth and power, it is just only when the interests of the least benefited members of society are compensated, i.e., the difference principle.

Marxism holds that justice is a social system and social ideology determined by a certain economic foundation, a historical, social and class category, with different societies and classes having different understandings of justice. In class society, the so-called justice is the justice of the ruling class, of the minority, and it is impossible for the broad masses to enjoy the right to justice. Justice in Marxism is to achieve justice for all, including the fair enjoyment of rights and the fulfilment of duties, the sharing of labor and the results of labor, the achievement of human freedom and the realization of the full development of man, etc.

The Marxist conception of justice was formed in the process of analyzing the causes of social injustice in capitalist society and criticizing the petty-bourgeois idea of justice, and has been constantly developed and perfected during the socialist revolution and construction. The Industrial Revolution first began in Britain in the 18th century, when machinery replaced manual labor, and the majority of the people lost their means of production and were reduced to the ranks of the proletariat, and could only live by selling their labor-power, while the capitalists, in pursuit of high profits, exploited and oppressed the working class unconditionally, hence the question of social justice has become increasingly prominent with the development of capitalist civilization. In Capital, Marx has exposed the secret of the extraction of surplus-value by the capitalists and criticized the bourgeoisie for using formal equality to conceal actual inequality. He criticized the “conception of eternal justice” of Proudhon and others, and pointed out that any justice has a historical and class nature. In the Critique of the Gotha Programme, he criticized Lassalle’s “fair distribution” and pointed out that justice is a necessary requirement for social development. In Anti-Dühring, Engels criticized Dühring’s “shallow, botched” conception of justice, and held that there can be no entire equality between people, and the proletarian demand for justice is to abolish classes. The justice at the first phase of communism is distribution according to contribution, “the individual producer receives back from society—after the deductions have been made—exactly what he gives to it. What he has given to it is his individual quantum of labor.” Taking into account the concrete situation of Russia, Lenin criticized the economic injustice caused by the bourgeoisie in its pursuit of high profits, and the injustice of the international economy aggravated by the monopoly capital under the conditions of imperialism, and developed Marx’s thought of economic justice. Lenin held that the proletarian demand for justice is broader than that of the bourgeoisie, and that in addition to formal justice, and that it was impossible to obtain complete justice in class society.

Justice presupposes highly developed material conditions. The root cause of injustice of class society lies in the undeveloped productive forces and the existence of private property. In class society, the productive forces are not yet able to satisfy the material and cultural needs of all. At the same time, due to the existence of private property in the means of production, the exploiting classes exploit the exploited classes to satisfy their own interests, resulting in the impossibility of realizing justice for the different classes politically, economically and culturally. Therefore, it is necessary to vigorously develop the productive forces, abolish class exploitation and private property, and realize free and full development of all in order to eliminate the root causes of social injustice. Marx held that we should develop production “to the point where it will satisfy the needs of all, the abolition of a situation in which the needs of some are satisfied at the expense of the needs of others, the complete liquidation of classes and their conflicts, the rounded development of the capacities of all members of society through the elimination of the present division of labor, through industrial education, through engaging in varying activities, through the participation by all in the enjoyments produced by all, through the combination of city and country.” In the article Progress of Social Reform on the Continent, Engels also pointed out: “Real liberty and real equality will be only possible under community arrangements, show them that justice demands such arrangements.”

Justice is the lofty realm of human society and the value goal of communism. Justice is the driving force behind social progress. The Marxist philosopher Tugarinov said: “The pursuit of justice is a great force that has driven all social revolutions in history and all progress through the ages.” As a part of the socialist core values, justice is influencing the building a socialist spiritual civilization and is pushing forward the healthy development of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.