The Analysis Of Schopenhauer’s Views On Justice

This article consists of three parts, voluntary justice, temporal justice and eternal justice.Schopenhauer’s view of good and bad is the premise of his "voluntary justice". The concept good isthe "fitness or suitableness of an object to any definite effort of the will"; the concept bad is the tendency ofdoing wrong; the concept good and bad are essentially relative. Voluntary justice is between good and bad,the mere negation of the bad; voluntary justice is that sees through the principium individuationius in acertain degree, the lower stage of the denial of the will to live; that excessively voluntary justice is thethoroughly denial of the will to live, indeed asceticism. As a virtue, voluntary justice has its origin innatural compassion, is the first degree of compassion and one of the two cardinal virtues derived fromcompassion; the second degree of compassion is loving-kindness; the fundamental principle of voluntaryjustice is "Do harm to no one".Schopenhauer puts forward temporal justice and eternal justice according to whether the guiltpunished immediately or not. Temporal justice refers to law or law enforcement (penalty) in the State. Thediscussion about wrong and right which makes foreshadowing for Schopenhauer’s "temporal justice".Wrong is namely the breaking through the boundary of another’s affirmation of will; right contains merelythe negation of wrong. Wrong expressed in cannibalism, murder, intentional mutilation or mere injury ofthe body of another, subjugation of another individual, forcing him into slavery, seizing the property ofanother, etc. Wrong occurs through violence and cunning. The concept wrong is positive, and rightnegative.The birth of law is not accidental. The will to live, egoism, the limitation of moral right, and reason arenecessary conditions for the birth of law. The will to live is the ultimate source of law’s birth, and law thespecial representation of the will to live; egoism is the basis in human nature of law’s birth; the limitation ofmoral right provides an opportunity for law’s birth; the birth of law is a product of reason. Law is directedto the future, is to frighten the individual off violating the rights of others; Punishment is also directed tothe future, is to frighten people off committing crime. Be directed to the future is the essential differencebetween law or punishment and common revenge. Legislation applies the pure doctrine of right from its reverse side. The pure doctrine of right or moralright is about the exact definition of limits and nature of right and wrong. The pure doctrine of right isdirectly related to the will or the doing of wrong, while legislation the deed or the suffering of wrong.Legislation borrows the pure doctrine of right from morality, in order to apply this from the reverse side toits ends, and accordingly to set up positive legislation (law) and the means for maintaining it (State). Theconcept of wrong and right, which is originally moral, becomes juridical by shifting the starting-point frombe concerned with "doing" to "suffering".The State springs from egoism, aiming at well-being. The State is so little against egoism, but themeans by which egoism, endowed with the faculty of reason, seeks to avoid its evil consequences that turnagainst itself; the State exists to serve the common egoism of all; the State isn’t essentially directed againstegoism, but only against the injurious consequences of universal egoism; the State is not an institution forpromoting morality. The phenomenon of the state attains its object completely is different from thephenomenon of the perfect justice of disposition everywhere prevails. Up to now the State has alwaysremained very far from its goal; the fulfillment of the state is an ideal, a gradual process.Eternal justice refers to the will as the world in itself. The will affirms itself, and meanwhile suffering,the affirmation and the suffering are in balance. What happens or indeed can happen to the individual,justice is always done to it."The world itself is the tribunal of the world." The misery of the world and itsguilt are in equilibrium. Eternal justice is withdrawn from the view that is involved in the principiumindividuationius, and grasped only by seeing through the principium individuationius completely. Theknowledge of comprehending eternal justice and the real nature of all virtue will always remaininaccessible to the majority of men. There are two characteristics of human nature which may help to makeclear how the essential nature of eternal justice and the unity and identity of the will in all its phenomena;the two characteristics are the psychological expectation of evil rewarded with evil and the spirit of maniafor retaliation.