Human Society – as an association of rational beings, in the search for happiness and a

good life cannot have stability & vitality

- Unless it is based on the Moral Values of an Ideal Society.

- Social Justice, Freedom, Truth, Human Rights, Solidarity and Fraternity and
Peace
- People do not simply form a society just because of physical survival but also
to live in a meaningful existence in relation to each other
- Rational beings who live in fellowship have to be:
o Just & Truthful to each other
o Free but respectful of each other’s rights
o To live in solidarity & peace
- Without these, even a technologically and/or economically advanced
society will not last long.
- Because the strength or virtue of a society is not material splendor and
grandeur but its moral and spiritual foundations

Justice – is giving to everyone what is due, or what one deserves (not equality)

- We apply it to individual actions, to laws, and to public policies, and we think

in each case that if they are unjust this is a strong, maybe even conclusive,
reason to reject them. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Justice was counted as one of the four cardinal virtues(Plato: prudence –
right reason in action (St. Tomas Aquinas), temperance – counteracts
temptations, fortitude – firmness in difficulties & justice) (and sometimes as the
most important of the four); in modern times John Rawls famously described it
as ‘the first virtue of social institutions’ (Rawls 1971, p.3; Rawls, 1999, p.3)
- Justice is predicated by the following principles: (1) To each person an equal
share (2)to each person according to efforts (3) To each person according to
contribution (4) To each person according to merits (5) To each person
according to needs or (6) To each according to one’s needs and from each
according to one’s ability

Distributive Justice, Retributive Justice, Commutative Justice & Social Justice

a. When it is about the fair distribution of scarce resources (goods or services)

b. When it is dispensed as a deserved punishment for an evil done or a reward for a
good done
c. Whet it deals with exchange or replacement of one thing for another. i.e.
commuting “death penalty” to “life-imprisonment”
d. Is the promotion of common good which is the development of every man and
woman.
- It seeks to “level the playing fields” so every member of society may have an
equal chance for material growth and spiritual development
- It is also a call to the state and to all individuals to up-root the causes of social
inequalities, fight discrimination, free man from various forms of servitude and
 enable him to be the instrument of his own material betterment of his moral
progress and of his spiritual growth.
- Is some sort of preferential option for the poor (reference being given to the
well-being of the poor and powerless of society in the teachings and
commands of God as well as the prophets and other righteous people) and
is also construed as a war against those who keep others in a state of
dependency and destitution.
- Social justice must be seen as the struggle to end the exploitation of man by
man, and to restore man’s humanity to man

Social Justice in the Philippine setting

- PH Society: a minority of people has the resources for material upliftment and
spiritual fulfillment.
- Social justice is a call to rectify this anomaly by way of “socializing” property,
wealth and incomes (socialism - advocates that the means of production,
distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community
as a whole) . And by “democratizing” (making something accessible to all –
Merriam) political power and privileges among the people.
- Social justice must go on, even though it is not palatable to the “ruling elites
or oligarchs” or to the “rich and mighty” of the social classes.
- Because it has to be in the best interest of, and an honor to, the human
society if all of its people were given the equal opportunity to grow and
develop their being as far as they can.

Social Justice in the economy

- Human society loses its justness and glory when the surplus and material
wealth are monopolized by a few to the impoverishment and destitution of
the vast majority.
- Undeserved wealth and undeserved poverty can be dismantled through
social justice of the structures that cause these. With that, everyone will have
access to anything that will enable them to have “material betterment,
moral progress and spiritual growth”
-

Social Justice with Religion

- Promotion of social justice has always been the over-riding concern of the
great religious faiths around the world.
- Yahweh, through the prophet, Isaiah is said to have told the people that the
pursuit of social justice is more important than all “religious assembles,
festivals, celebrations and songs”

“I hate, I despise your feasts, your celebrations, I take no delight in solemn

assemblies……but let justice roll down like an over-flowing stream”
 - Micah laments the overemphasis on religious rituals and other “pious
nonsense”

“What does the Lord required of thee, but to do justice, to love mercy and walk
humbly with thy God?”

- God-Yahweh has no greater wish and mandate than that his followers,
whether Jews or Christians, should help create a world of justice, brotherliness
and peace
- In Islam, social justice is considered the cornerstone of “universal brotherhood
and equality of men”.
- Ashgar Ali Engineer said “Islamic brotherhood was meaningless without
emphasis on socio-economic equality….it is tolerable to have a society
without a religion so long as there is justice, but Allah cannot approve a
religious state without justice”
- According to the Quran, there can be no justice without the liberation of the
poor and the weak from economic exploitation and social oppression.

“Allah does not allow or tolerate the structures of oppression”

- Just like the god-Yahweh, the god-Allah, both expects nothing less from “the
believers” than to champion social justice

“all but sound and fury signifying nothing” Shakespeare

- This is if we don’t defend social justice and we go on to declaim equality,

brotherhood and peace

Concluding statements

- The teachings of the great religious faiths entail that social justice is deeply
rooted to the belief that the excessive concentration of earth’s resources to
the hands of the few that leads to dispossession and impoverishment of “the
greatest number” is surely “anathema” (curse) to the gods.
- The test of one’s faith in God is one’s willing-ness to help create a world order
that is just and humane, democratic and free.
- “Ang tunay na kabanalan, ay ang pagkakawang-gawa, ang pagibig sa
kapua at ang isukan ang bawat kilos, gawa’t pangungusap sa talagang
Katuiran”