Editing Social justice (section)

== History ==
{{Main|Social contract|Justice|Corrective justice|Distributive justice}}
[[File:Sanzio 01 Plato Aristotle.jpg|thumb|upright|An artist's rendering of what Plato might have looked like. From Raphael's early 16th century painting "''Scuola di Atene"''.]]
The different concepts of [[justice]], as discussed in ancient [[Western philosophy]], were typically centered upon the community.

[[File:Aristotle Altemps Inv8575.jpg|thumb|upright|Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos, {{Circa|330 BC}}. The alabaster mantle is modern.]]
* [[Plato]] wrote in ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'' that it would be an ideal state that "every member of the community must be assigned to the class for which he finds himself best fitted."<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'' (ca 380BC)</ref> In an article for J.N.V University, author D.R. Bhandari says, "Justice is, for Plato, at once a part of human virtue and the bond, which joins man together in society. It is the identical quality that makes good and social. Justice is an order and duty of the parts of the soul, it is to the soul as health is to the body. Plato says that justice is not mere strength, but it is a harmonious strength. Justice is not the right of the stronger but the effective harmony of the whole. All moral conceptions revolve about the good of the whole-individual as well as social".<ref name="bu.edu">{{cite web |url=https://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Anci/AnciBhan.htm |title = 20th WCP: Plato's Concept of Justice: An Analysis |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005111127/http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Anci/AnciBhan.htm |archive-date = 5 October 2016}}</ref>
* Plato believed rights existed only between free people, and the law should take "account in the first instance of relations of inequality in which individuals are treated in proportion to their worth and only secondarily of relations of equality."  Reflecting this time when [[slavery]] and subjugation of women was typical, ancient views of justice tended to reflect the rigid class systems that still prevailed. On the other hand, for the privileged groups, strong concepts of fairness and the community existed. [[Distributive justice]] was said by [[Aristotle]] to require that people were distributed goods and assets according to their merit.<ref>''[[Nicomachean Ethics]]'' V.3</ref>
[[File:Head of Socrates in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (Rome).JPG|thumb|upright|Bust of Socrates]]
* [[Socrates]] (through Plato's dialogue ''[[Crito]]'') is credited with developing the idea of a [[social contract]], whereby people ought to follow the rules of a society, and accept its burdens because they have accepted its benefits.<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[Crito]]'' (ca 380 BC)</ref> During the Middle Ages, religious scholars particularly, such as [[Thomas Aquinas]] continued discussion of justice in various ways, but ultimately connected being a good citizen to the purpose of serving God. The [[Waldensians]] were a medieval sect that advocated for social justice.<ref name="Murray 2018 p. 106">{{cite book | last=Murray | first=S. | title=Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World. Second Edition | publisher=Cascade Books | series=After Christendom | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-5326-1797-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X_BGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 | access-date=2023-03-30 | page=106}}</ref>

After the [[Renaissance]] and [[Reformation]], the modern concept of social justice, as developing human potential, began to emerge through the work of a series of authors. [[Baruch Spinoza]] in ''[[On the Improvement of the Understanding]]'' (1677) contended that the one true aim of life should be to acquire "a human character much more stable than [one's] own", and to achieve this "pitch of perfection... The chief good is that he should arrive, together with other individuals if possible, at the possession of the aforesaid character."<ref>B Spinoza, ''[[On the Improvement of the Understanding]]'' (1677) [[s:On the Improvement of the Understanding#12|para 13]]</ref> During the [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]] and responding to the [[French Revolution|French]] and [[American Revolution]]s, [[Thomas Paine]] similarly wrote in ''[[The Rights of Man]]'' (1792) society should give "genius a fair and universal chance" and so "the construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward... all that extent of capacity which never fails to appear in revolutions."<ref>[[T Paine]], ''[[Rights of Man]]'' (1792) 197</ref>

[[File:Fr. Luigi Taparelli.jpg|thumb|''Social justice'' has been traditionally credited to be coined by [[Jesuit]] priest [[Luigi Taparelli]] in the 1840s, but the expression is older.]]
Although there is no certainty about the first use of the term "social justice", early sources can be found in Europe in the 18th century.<ref name="pérez27">{{Cite journal|last=Pérez-Garzón|first=Carlos Andrés|date=2018-01-14|title=Unveiling the Meaning of Social Justice in Colombia|url=https://revistas.juridicas.unam.mx/index.php/mexican-law-review/article/view/11892|journal=Mexican Law Review|language=en-US|volume=10|issue=2|pages=27–66|issn=2448-5306|access-date=28 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329054435/https://revistas.juridicas.unam.mx/index.php/mexican-law-review/article/view/11892|archive-date=29 March 2018}}</ref> Some references to the use of the expression are in articles of journals aligned with the spirit of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], in which social justice is described as an obligation of the monarch;<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnMLHOwjqgMC&q=%22justice+sociale%22&pg=PA311|title=Journal encyclopédique... [Ed. Pierre Rousseau]|last=Rousseau|date=1774|publisher=De l'Imprimerie du Journal|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xzATAAAAYAAJ&q=justice+sociale&pg=PA131|title=L'Esprit des journaux, françois et étrangers|date=1784|publisher=Valade|language=fr}}</ref> also the term is present in books written by Catholic Italian theologians, notably members of the [[Society of Jesus]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AEBbAAAAcAAJ&q=%22giustizia+sociale%22&pg=PA349|title=L'Episcopato ossia della Potesta di governar la chiesa. Dissertazione|date=1789|publisher=na|language=it}}</ref> Thus, according to this sources and the context, social justice was another term for "the justice of society", the justice that rules the relations among individuals in society, without any mention to socio-economic equity or human dignity.<ref name="pérez27"/>

The usage of the term started to become more frequent by Catholic thinkers from the 1840s, beginning with the [[Jesuit]] [[Luigi Taparelli]] in ''Civiltà Cattolica'', and based on the work of St. [[Thomas Aquinas]]. Taparelli argued that rival [[capitalism|capitalist]] and [[socialist]] theories, based on subjective [[René Descartes|Cartesian]] thinking, undermined the unity of society present in [[Thomism|Thomistic]] [[metaphysics]] as neither were sufficiently concerned with ethics.<ref name=":1" />  Writing in 1861, the influential British philosopher and economist, [[John Stuart Mill]] stated in ''[[Utilitarianism]]'' his view that "Society should treat all equally well who have deserved equally well of it, that is, who have deserved equally well absolutely. This is the highest abstract standard of social and distributive justice; towards which all institutions, and the efforts of all virtuous citizens, should be made in the utmost degree to converge."<ref>[[JS Mill]], ''[[Utilitarianism (book)|Utilitarianism]]'' (1863)</ref>

In the later 19th and early 20th century, social justice became an important theme in American political and legal philosophy, particularly in the work of [[John Dewey]], [[Roscoe Pound]] and [[Louis Brandeis]]. One of the prime concerns was the ''[[Lochner era]]'' decisions of the [[US Supreme Court]] to strike down legislation passed by state governments and the Federal government for social and economic improvement, such as the [[eight-hour day]] or the right to join a [[trade union]]. After the First World War, the founding document of the [[International Labour Organization]] took up the same terminology in its preamble, stating that "peace can be established only if it is based on social justice". From this point, the discussion of social justice entered into mainstream legal and academic discourse.

In 1931, the [[Pope Pius XI]] explicitly referred to the expression, along with the concept of [[subsidiarity]], for the first time in [[Catholic social teaching]] in the encyclical ''[[Quadragesimo anno]]''. Then again in ''[[Divini Redemptoris]]'', the church pointed out that the realization of social justice relied on the promotion of the [[human dignity|dignity of human person]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19370319_divini-redemptoris.html|title=Divini Redemptoris (March 19, 1937) {{!}} PIUS XI|website=w2.vatican.va|access-date=2018-03-28}}</ref> During the 1930s, the term was widely associated with pro-[[Nazi]] and [[antisemitic]] groups, such as the [[Christian Front (United States)|Christian Front]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Press: Crackdown on Coughlin |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,795777,00.html |magazine=Time |access-date=24 February 2022 |date=27 April 1942}}</ref> Social Justice was the slogan of [[Charles Coughlin]], and the name of his [[Social Justice (periodical)|newspaper]]. Because of the documented influence of ''Divini Redemptoris'' in its drafters,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Moyn|first=Samuel|date=2014|title=The Secret History of Constitutional Dignity|url=http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yhrdlj/vol17/iss1/2/|journal=Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal|language=en|volume=17|issue=1|issn=1548-2596}}</ref> the [[Constitution of Ireland]] was the first one to establish the term as a principle of the economy in the State, and then other countries around the world did the same throughout the 20th century, even in [[socialist]] regimes such as the [[Constitution of Cuba|Cuban Constitution]] in 1976.<ref name="pérez27"/>

In the late 20th century, several liberal and conservative thinkers, notably [[Friedrich Hayek]] rejected the concept by stating that it did not mean anything, or meant too many things.<ref>[[FA Hayek]], ''[[Law, Legislation and Liberty]]'' (1973) vol II, ch 3</ref> However the concept remained highly influential, particularly with its promotion by philosophers such as [[John Rawls]]. Even though the meaning of social justice varies, at least three common elements can be identified in the contemporary theories about it: a duty of the State to [[Distributive justice|distribute]] certain vital means (such as [[Economic, social and cultural rights|economic, social, and cultural rights]]), the protection of [[human dignity]], and [[affirmative action]]s to promote [[substantive equality]] and [[social equity]] for everybody.<ref name="pérez27"/>