Justice: Does History Matter?

As Western civilization advanced into the sixteenth century, the notion of justice originated as a central theme for discussing the treatment and condition of the human race. At this time, much of Western Europe was uncertain of how to describe justice on a universal scope or distinguish what circumstances constituted an act of such merit.

This indecision within the public realm left the matter in the hands of several political theorists to consider. These philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More and Tzvetan Todorov all formulated different perspectives in determining the correlation between justice and history.

With these views in mind, justice can not be fully understood independent of historical contexts. Instead, those that possess power can ultimately determine justice for any society according to their own personal experiences and beliefs.

Humans often rely on events from the past as a basis for the values and morals that enter into their daily routines. These historical contexts provide humans with the opportunity to compare different societies to each other in order to gain a new and diverse perception of justice.

Without history as a reference point, justice could not exist as an individual entity free from all standards of society-a universal conception of justice can not be created without any basis for comparison.

For example, many strongly believe that the colonization and genocide of the native peoples of early America were actions of injustice.

On the other hand, others may not view these actions with a similar sense of disgust but rather with satisfaction. These divergent perceptions of justice can waver on various policies, depending on the issue at hand. Therefore, justice can not be defined by concrete borders or provisions-people will ultimately determine what is right and wrong in a particular society by understanding the rewards and consequences from early events in history.