Policy and Complex Systems
Philosophical and Historical Context Necessary for Education Innovation
The Pursuit of Justice
The pursuit of justice is a critical concept in understanding the operation of a democratic political economy . Understanding the nature of justice is essential , but not easy . Plato ’ s ( 2008 ) book The Republic is critical to start . We will use the case of justice in the era of the Enlightenment as a precursor to what may return American Democracy back on its historic path to liberty and justice for all .
Ancient Views of Justice
Plato ’ s ( 2008 ) book The Republic is mainly about justice . He viewed justice to be imbedded in a societal structure , led by philosopher kings and in modernity we add , philosopher queens . As for the populace , each was to fulfill his role in a form of meritocracy , somewhat akin to a track system . It took until the Age of Enlightenment for Western Civilization ’ s justice to be spawned from the rights of the individual rather than from hierarchical authority .
That Age of Enlightenment was built upon a tripod of knowledge , justice , and morality . The knowledge component had roots in Plato ’ s ( 2008 ) book , The Republic , particularly in its Allegory of the Cave . The allegory is about people chained in a cave seeing only shadows on the wall and not the reality of what was creating them . Their understanding of the system that existed was based on the shadows , not the underlying reality . As such , their knowledge was seriously deficient . Furthermore , they were not delighted to be enlightened .
The quality of knowledge used in decisions is critical to likely outcomes . Hammurabi ’ s Code , the oldest extant written record of the laws for justice , tested the guilt or innocence of the charged violator by throwing him into the river . If he swam and survived , he was innocent . The population was classified as royalty , freemen , and slaves . Justice differed by class .
In addition , preceding Plato , his philosophical predecessor Socrates and his follower Aristotle , was Judaic law . Although Israelite structures evolved , by the time of the ancient Greek philosophers , justice for the Israelites was rooted in the individual ’ s rights , and the pursuit of equality of treatment was especially noted . The law was divinely based and accepted in the Covenant . Justice was the application of righteousness , or what we may call morality . The community was structured upon law , sourced from the bible , the righteousness , and the justice dealing with the application of righteousness .
During the time of Aristotle , Epicurus had an explanation of the nature of things that had no divine providence . Justice was simply a relational agreement not to do harm between the parties . Again , justice is a component of societal structure . What differs over time and culture is the nature of justice .
In all the previous cases , we discuss a societal structure . Societal structures are frameworks of complex adaptive systems that are organic in nature — meaning they evolve . We look to deal with the evolution of American democracy and using justice and reason , values and knowledge , and capitalize on analytics to influence the ever-evolving structure and the outcomes . For democratic structures , we need a state that has the monopoly on the use of force for a sovereign territory . Additionally , a rule of law is required , and an accountability of the
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