Is Justice a Hindrance to Happiness?

Hello.

Plato. The prompt today is: In your opinion, how can acting “right” (i.e. justly) help or harm the achievement of happiness? A good question, if you ask me.

And my answer:

I think that to understand this I first need to define both my idea of happiness and justice. I’ll start with the easier of the two, happiness. Happiness is doing something, or being with someone, that you enjoy. If you love, as I do, to read, then happiness, for you, might be a good book. If you love your little brother, then happiness, for you, might be spending time with him. The most important thing here, though, is that happiness is different for every person, in the same way that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One thing will not make everyone happy.

For me, justice is harder to define, as we have been talking about it in class and Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers of all time, has said a lot about the subject. After thinking about this for a while, I think that my definition would be this: Justice is doing right in the given situation.

If Socrates were to press me on this, as he did with Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus, I think that we would be most likely to ask me what I meant by “right” and I would answer that “right” is what the situation calls for.

In some situations, telling the truth is “right” or “just”. In some, it is paying you dues, in some; it is the might of the strong.

I don’t mean this to say that there are no universals (things that are true in ever situation). I think that it is never right to harm someone unless it is in self-defense (and I have been thinking about this and the death penalty. I don’t agree with the death penalty myself, but many people do. Oddly enough many of these people are anti-abortion…how can you be for the death penalty and against abortion. They say that it’s not “humane” to abort a baby, as it is killing them, but what about putting prisoners to death? I am for abortion, but not because I believe that it’s OK to kill babies, but for two other reasons. First, many people who wan to get abortions can't support the baby that they are about to have. That’s why they want to abort in the first place. I think that it is important for people like them to have that choice open to them, as the children they would have would be badly cared for or sent into orphanages, where their lives would be terrible. The other reason is that children who are raped or have children too early need to be able to abort. A child when you are twelve, or ten, can ruin your life, especially if your parents aren’t willing o help you care for it. So for that, it’s not just a matter of life or death, but of TWO lives, so there you have it. Tangent over.). Another universal would be that you have to care for your friends and neighbors. You have to follow the law, you have to make the best decisions that you are able to. I think that you should tell the truth to the best of your abilities, obviously, not ALL the time, as Socrates pointed out.

So, do I think that justice hinders the pursuit of happiness? Sometimes, I think that it does. Take school for example. Sometimes, it would make me very happy to not pay attention, doodle in class, etc. but because of the rules, and what is right, I don’t. Now, this doesn’t make me profoundly unhappy, it’s just a small example.

This is part of the reason why I think that the just man will always come out behind the unjust man. The unjust man, having no morality or scruples, will do things that the just man won’t that will make him happy.

But then arises the question, would the just man be happy doing unjust things? No, most likely not, so perhaps they are both happy.

Goodbye.