Justice with Mercy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Justice with Mercy - Essay Example As defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary Justice is â€Å"the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or assigning the merited rewards or punishments† (Duff and Garland 44). Justly assigning the rewards and punishments associated with an action/infraction are particularly important to a Naval Officer. An officer must impartially distinguish the facts in a non-judicial punishment (NJP) case and issue punishment in a fair, impartial, practical and effective manner. Merriam-Webster also defines justice as â€Å"the quality of being just, impartial, or fair† (Duff and Garland 44). While being impartial will usually be the simple part to a NJP case the issue of being just or fair leaves some ambiguity. From the point of view of Plato, justice is one of the four main cardinal virtues that need to be upheld by all humans (Mill 35). Plato’s student contends that virtuous behavior needs to be at the ce nter stage of human behavior. In his review, this state of fairness is the basement upon which moral maturity is anchored. Just like Aristotle, Plato contends that fairness principle is central to the execution of justice. In this regard, individuals need to be entitled and to get exactly what is due to them. According anything more than whatever they deserve implies that justice in this regard is excessive (Konow 1188). Conversely, according them less of whatever they deserve implies that justice is deficient. Although it could be very difficult to determine and measure the exact amount of what people deserve, the perfect justice principle offers useful insights that can be used to attain this. At this point, it is certain that justice is a virtuous principle that greatly promotes fairness. In particular, it ensures that good persons within the society are rewarded while those who pursue evil deeds are punished accordingly. To a great extent, this enhances harmonic living as a bala nce is maintained between the societal good and evil. In this respect, individuals inhabiting such a society appreciate the importance of the virtue and employ it in restoration and maintenance of social order. Undoubtedly, a society that lacks justice is likely to be characterized by a high degree of disorganization. Examining the Socratic principles we find that justice is entrenched in various ethical principles. In light of utilitarianism for instance, ends must justify the means. In a game of chess, if a parent violates the rules of chess in order to teach the child how to play the games we find that the ends justify the means. Though a trivial example the same application of righteousness of action can be expanded and applied to a larger context. According to Rawls utilitarian moral ethics state that the best action or avoidance of action is determined by the usefulness of the implementation of an action or inaction (Rawls 42). In short, the morally right act or avoidance of a n act is grounded based on the outcome of the action or avoidance of action† (Mill 52). Utilitarians believe that punishment is allowed if it brings greater happiness to the greater number of persons in society. In his research, Rawls emphasizes that punishment is justifiable if it effectively promotes societal interests, otherwise it should be disallowed (Rawls 56). In essence,