Week 10 reading :

From social justice to global justice

Topic: the development and future theory of social justice

Core: Reciprocity.

I
1. Concepts of justice
1.  The foundation of social justice: All human beings are equal in
worth.
2.  Three ideas of social justice: The wealth and abilities of
individuals are social products (social construction).  Principle of
need.  Justice as fairness.
3.  Principle of desert (negative example, rejected) is a exception of
social construction: Good should be praised, evil should be
punished.  
4.  Principle of need
5.  Justice as fairness
6.  Two arguments about the artificialness of justice (neither is
correct): (1) Justice is independent from human thought (like a
tree or physic formulas).  (2) Justice is a subjective construct
that can be formulated in anyway one pleases.
7.  Essence of justice: Justice is a concept, a tool invented and
refined by many different people based on people’s intuitions of
what’s just. Justice is shapable, but not infinitely reinvent-able.

2. Future theory of social justice

1. Core: Reciprocity.
2. Intuitions of justice: Reciprocity. A sensibility for reciprocity in
relations among persons would be a central feature of future
justice theory.
3. Reason: Human beings are considered equal in worth, but not
also equal in capabilities.
4. In transactions between each other, one should give out
requitals that are proportional to one’s capabilities.

3. Global justice
1. The devision between “us” and “them”: Weak countries and
outsiders are not viewed as a part of the traditional justice
systems. (Plato, Thomas Hobbs.)
2. Most problem of injustice: Powerful parties lack of willingness
to engage with weaker parties on terms of reciprocity, and the
absence of any systematic means for correcting unfair
international transactions.
Lecture 10: Delivery of Justice

1. Peaceful ways to resolve differences, dealing differences -> Justice.

2. Two movies about lawyers: traditional Chinese’s view, justice comes from
supernatural power outside of human society; The Attorney, Korean (Western view
of justice), delivery of justice needs human action.
3. Non-human primates also have sense of fairness.
4. Equality (sameness, giving everyone the same thing) vs Equity (fairness, give
everyone access to the same opportunities)
5.

6. A meritocratic society would blame people living in unconditional housings while

they weren’t offered another choice.
7. The trolley problem. Classic question about justice, involved to automatic car crash
algorithm. 賀建奎事件 -> What happens if other people take the cost of your
choice?
8. Code of Hammurabi. Ancient Egypt
9. Ten Commandments: A god imposed the laws to people, an easy source of
legitimacy.
10.
11.

12. Magna Carta 1215 大憲章: Aims to restrict power of the king. Have a supernatural
basis of legitimacy.
13. Thomas Hobbs, and his book The Leviathan (1651). Evil human nature (“war of all
against all” in the natural condition of human) and need a strong state to provide
security and maintain order in human society.
14. John Locke, Two treaties of government (1690). Governments gain its power through
a social contract between the government and the people. Overthrowing a tyrant is
legitimate.
15. Jeremy Bentham. “Greatest Happiness Principle”

16. Justice System (Legal System): resolve disputes between people/ people and
government. Provide delivery of justice.

17. Star Chamber: Privilege against self-incrimination. People in traditional Chinese

courts might be forced to self-incrimination. Legal competition in star chambers,
general court handle most cases.

18. Court of Chancery: Specialized courts to better delivery justice. (Old Chinese courts
usually use local officials as judges, and they might be bad judges)

19. Riding circuit judge: circuit riding, In the U.S., the act, once undertaken by a
judge, of traveling within a judicial district (or circuit) to facilitate the hearing of
cases.

20. Nuremberg Trials: Trial of Nazi Germany war criminals in 1945-46.

21. The US supreme court: No terms of office, very powerful. Handles US legislation.
2023 Harlan Crow Scandal: He was discovered bribing the Supreme Court ->
Maintaining justice needs continuous action and efforts.
Week 11 reading :
What went wrong with democracy in America?
Topic: Tocqueville and his book On Democracy in America
Core: Democratic mores& civil participation

I
1. Theories of Democracy of Tocqueville
1. On Democracy in America: implications of the broad trend of societies evolving in the
direction of democracy. Tocqueville defined "democracy" in a different way than is
understood today.
2. Definition of Democracy: Not "American-style liberal democracy", more as a social
condition and moral habits/ dispositions of democratic culture.
3. 2 Major Components of Democracy: Equality and Political Freedom. Equality (of status
and rights) is the essential characteristic of democracy, which creates social mobility.
Political Freedom, liberty to live their lives as they wish and to participate in the affairs of
government. Highly diffuse and decentralized power and a high level of participation of
people in discussing local affairs.
4. 2 threats of democracy: the rise of the capital class and the “individualism” is causes;
slavery. Essense: materialism and the strengthen of the state harms people.
3. 3 Pillars of political Freedom: Civil associations; religion; democratic mores (“habits of
the hearts”) which takes root in religions.

2. Current Problem & Reason of American Democracy

1. American democracy has fallen into a pattern of civil disengagement by
individualistic people who only care about their own and small groups’ goods.
(individual goods vs common good)
2. the culture of civil society is getting ruined. It’s becoming partisan, politicized,
focus on lobbying, identities, culture war and social movements. (ideology vs
mores)
2. Reason of the problems: Democratic mores’s basis, religion, is politicized and full
of racial bias. US need a new concept of religion to save democracy.

3. the author raise questions about how they could

improve US democracy and said those questions
.

would be explained inside his book re-constitution.

Lecture 11 : Democracy

1. Brexit, nail household, LGBTQ rights movement, BLM -> Applications of democracy
2. Plato: Philosopher king -> leaders that are wise and lead the society. Citizen in a city
state participates in politics.
3. The Death of Socrates: “tyranny of the majority”, a society might make unwise
decisions just because most people agreed.
4. Roman Republic: People’s Assemblies, consuls, etc. By both election and
appointment, more resilient than Greek regimes. As Roman Republic grew, the
regime couldn’t rule an empire and finally democracy failed (Caesar Augustus:
Roman Democratic city state -> empire).
5. Execution of King Charles I -> Nobles’ power expanded.
6. Louis XIV of France -> The French revolution centralized power, and reduced nobles’
power.
7. Tocqueville: Worries that the French republic overcentralized power.
8. John Stuart Mill: (On Liberty) State intervention only happens to reduce harm.
9. Hitler and Hindenburg: Hitler was elected by the German people, which means
democracy could fail itself through selecting a dictator.
10. The majority could be not trustworthy sometimes. Also, democracy sows discord in
the country in many aspects (economics, healthcare, education, etc.), and radicalizes
the division between groups. Each faction denies the others’ achievements and
policy continuity can’t be guaranteed.
11. St. Bartholomew’s Day -> religious massacre
12. King John, Magna Carta -> legal restriction of power.
13. YongZheng Empror, US Court, the Press -> Designed ways/ are ways to distribute
power and restrict one political force to be too strong.
14. Problems of democracy -> greeymandering(unfair representation through
designation of election districts), Fake news, AI generated fake photos.
15. Application of democracy -> Arrange slot places inside a Tsukiji market (fish market),
some are good, some are bad, everyone wants a good slot position. Methods:
random lottery; elect representatives to communicate; let people fight, etc.
Core: Mediation and negotiation.