Principles of a Just Society A just society is a one where people have all the means and they are motivated to participate in the politics and governance of the society. The people of such a society...

Principles of a Just Society
A just society is a one where people have all the means and they are motivated to participate in the politics and governance of the society. The people of such a society have personal and political freedom more ensured and secured than a typical society. A just society respects the rights of the minorities and do not get influenced on the basis of the demands from the majorities.
The regions and the groups of all the affiliations share the country’s resources with equal opportunity and there is no preferential treatment given to any group of the people. The just society facilitates the full rights of the citizenship through the policies fostering equality and justice among the residents. The just society has all its citizens participating in the country’s development and growth.
The above mentioned features of a just society can be fulfilled by loosely following the principles of the social contract theory by Thomas Hobbes. According to him, the power should be in the hands of absolute sovereign because all human beings are capable of reasoning and they can figure out that the only way to grow together is to collaborate and co-create the value by working together with each other.


1 Week 5 Assignment 1 5 Patricia Clark Philosophy and Social Justice Introduction to Philosophy June 14, 2013 Chelsea Snelgrove, Instructor South University, Online Principles of a Just Society A just society is a one where people have all the means and they are motivated to participate in the politics and governance of the society. The people of such a society have personal and political freedom more ensured and secured than a typical society. A just society respects the rights of the minorities and do not get influenced on the basis of the demands from the majorities. The regions and the groups of all the affiliations share the country’s resources with equal opportunity and there is no preferential treatment given to any group of the people. The just society facilitates the full rights of the citizenship through the policies fostering equality and justice among the residents. The just society has all its citizens participating in the country’s development and growth. The above mentioned features of a just society can be fulfilled by loosely following the principles of the social contract theory by Thomas Hobbes. According to him, the power should be in the hands of absolute sovereign because all human beings are capable of reasoning and they can figure out that the only way to grow together is to collaborate and co-create the value by working together with each other. By doing so, they might have to leave a certain degree of autonomy but that will create a nonviolent and fruitful atmosphere in which to live. The cooperation among the members of the society will also bring into place the law and order system which is acceptable by all members of the society. Once this system comes into being the power of this system cannot be questioned and the consent of the members of the society is the sole basis of governance and the power of the just society. This theory will be able to make the just society according to the features explained in the first section of the report by arising the equality and hope in attaining the ends as envisioned. Any two members of the society desire same things in life and they cannot make a just society unless they both work together and endeavor to achieve similar goals. This theory aims that they do not work to subdue each other. There is no fear of single man power and everyone will have a kind of faith in collective wisdom of all members of the society. Such a society has no particular human being sitting in the privileged seat and thus has an equal and just distribution of power among all the members of the society. The just society which is mentioned in the above sections is different than the prevalent societal structure of the United States because it does not have all the members of the society participating in the collaborative effort towards making a just society. The members of the society participate in making government by indirect election of their representatives but it is limited by the fact that the minorities do not actually have their say in addressing their issues and problems because of non-participation of all the sections of the society. To look from a different point of view to make a just society, the theory given by John Rawls is most suitable to implement in today’s society. According to this principle, the free and rational always accept equality as the most basic premise of the association of various members of the society. These principles regulate the further agreements and specify the social cooperation that should be entered into and the government framework which should be followed. These principles facilitate the social cooperation to divide the duties, rights and the benefits of the just society. Most men can decide in advance about how to advance about their claims for each other and what will act as a foundation for their agreement among each other to facilitate the charter of the just society. Along with the individuals deciding for the good of themselves, there should be a rationale which will facilitate people to make sure that they come to know about the best possible framework of the governance for the just society. According to Rawls, the primary basis of any just society is based on justice and this concept of justice is different from what was conceptualized by Plato and Aristotle. All the people in such a society act in full capacity according to whatever is the role or profession of a person in the society. This principle connects the concept of justice with concept of fairness. Any society which wants to be just it has to be a fair society. People in such a society would like to deal and get into agreements and contracts with each other because they will be assured of a fair treatment by each other. The governance infrastructure treats people fairly and political rights and economic responsibilities are taken care of by the state machinery. References Chaffee, J. ( 2010). Philosopher's Way (3rd Ed) Pearson Learning Solutions. Retrieved from http://digitalbookshelf.southuniversity.edu/books/9781256507666/id/ch09figure18 William Ebenstein and Alan O Ebenstein, “Hobbes,” in Great Political Thinkers: Plato to the Present (Fort Worth, 1991), 397-406 . Langley, Raymond J “Hobbes,” in McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography (New York, 1973 Perez Zagorin, “Thomas Hobbes” in International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences (New York, 1968)