Thanks, Aga, for your suggestion about two forms of justice:
spiritual and rational. It's a distinction that makes it easier to
talk about some of these issues.
(I'm not entirely comforable with the actual labels. I don't think
of myself as a "spiritual" person. And I think I am sometimes too
rational for my own good. But that's only a definitional issue. It
doesn't detract from the concepts as concepts.)
My interest is in the practicalities of designing and facilitating
university units or organisational interventions (as two examples)
that are both satisfying and productive.
In such applications it seems to me that the concept of "spiritual"
justice, to use your terminology, is important. At the same time I
think it's likely to be important that the extrinsic, the
"rational", doesn't undermine what we are trying to do.
The thought occurs to me that the larger the system we are talking
about, the more we depend upon the extrinsic. So, yes (to take one
example) we may have to lock people up. For me the question is,
why do we do so?
Different people involved in the Queensland prison system give
different responses. One common answer is that "because of their
behaviour they have earned the punishment". For those who believe
that we all have equal opportunity and we all control our own
behaviour, I think that's a reasonable response.
Again speaking for myself, I have two difficulties with it.
The first is, I don't think people are in control of who they are.
I think that the situation people are born into predisposes them to
crime, or not. The lesson is, choose your parents wisely, for that
does much to determine your future.
The second is, in my experience it doesn't work. Prison systems
(or justice systems generally) designed on that principle often
lead to a high probability of re-offence. That's not very
beneficial for the person or for society.
Warm regards -- Bob
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+- Bob Dick --------------------------------------------------+
| bd at uqconnect.net http://uqconnect.net/action_research/ |
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