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When we look at what is happening in the world today, it is clear that we need justice as a virtue. Without it, we will struggle to create equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities for all – especially in South Africa, with its growing list of challenges, writes Nico Koopman.
Every year on 20 February, we observe the World Day of Social Justice "to promote efforts to tackle issues such as poverty, exclusion, employment, gender equity and access to social well-being and justice for all".
The word that jumps out at me is justice. It is sometimes described as a vision and ideal, as a standard and value, as an obligation, duty and right. But justice is also a virtue. A virtue is a predisposition, a tendency, an intuition to be and to act in a specific way without prior reflection. It almost happens instinctively and, to some extent, has an element of unavoidability.
The Greek word for virtue, arête, refers to the divine power that we do have to be and to act in accordance with goodness. Virtue also has the dimension of habitus, which means it is acquired in the process of consistent and collective habitual behaviour.
Virtuous living
Greek philosopher Aristotle identified four so-called cardinal virtues – justice, moderation/self-control, discernment/wisdom and courage/fortitude. Centuries later, medieval Roman Catholic scholar Thomas Aquinas added three theological virtues to these four, namely faith, hope and love. These seven virtues are interdependent. Justice is viewed as the culmination of all virtues. In some way, all the virtues can be described as manifestations of justice.
When we look at what is happening in the world today, it is clear that we need justice as a virtue. Without it, we will struggle to create equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities for all – especially in South Africa, with its growing list of challenges. The last few years have shown that we need to guard against the excessive and insufficient use of material goods. We need to cultivate the virtue of temperance and moderation. But we must even go a step further and apply this principle to all our relationships and facets of life. This is what virtuous living is all about.
In a globalised and sometimes tragic world where millions still yearn for social justice, we also need more wisdom and discernment to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad. To create equal opportunities for all, we must be able to prioritise, to discern what and who requires attention at a specific point in time.
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We need wisdom to discern the things that really matter to our society. I would argue that one of the reasons why we struggle to achieve social justice for all South Africans is that we have failed to act with the necessary wisdom and discernment. We have seen that the most well-informed person is not necessarily the wisest.
Wisdom and discernment are, however, not enough to achieve social justice. We also need courage. Courage is demonstrated in extraordinary circumstances, like in opposition to Nazism and apartheid. But it is also, perhaps even mostly, required in the so-called ordinary events and challenges of every day, like paying attention to the plights of our fellow citizens who struggle to make ends meet. Courage is needed when a moral “no” is required even though everyone else is saying "yes”. These courageous people, moral heroes, are called for, not only when extraordinary challenges are faced, but also when we deal with the seemingly ordinary challenges of everyday life.
Continuously strive for justice
Courage does entail concrete and active engagement, but also endurance. In this sense, courage is related to patience. Patience is the most neglected virtue in modern societies where the levels of addiction to hyperactivity is very high. Impatience makes us desert our suffering brothers and sisters who need our care.
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Just persons do not only adhere objectively to justice as a moral value that guide private and public life. For them justice is an embodied, incarnated value which almost intuitively guide their way of being, living, deciding and acting in this world.
The various descriptions of justice that societies strive to adhere to are embodied by virtuous individuals. Utilitarian theories of justice envisage a just society as one where that which is of utility to the highest number of people is achieved. Communitarian theories of justice reckon that solidarity opens the doors to justice. Egalitarian theories plead for equal access to the most basic goods for all people, while libertarian theories stress the freedom of especially individuals to develop potentialities as the way towards justice.
As we celebrate the World Day of Social Justice, let us remind one another that in all our quests for justice, the cause of the most vulnerable and marginalised in our society should enjoy priority. Justice for all is what we should continuously work for. Thinking of justice not just as a vision or obligation, but also as a virtue will help us on this journey.
- Prof Nico Koopman is Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel at Stellenbosch University.
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