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Are Justice and Morality Social Constructs?
Inquiring into character and law in a society in crisis
Introduction
Many people today do not believe in any philosophically justifiable theory of morality, preferring to identify as moral relativists, immoralists, or simply nihilists. The political, social, and economic realities we live with seem to reward and even necessitate ruthlessness and skepticism toward morality. Cultivating an upright moral character is perhaps a protracted process with seemingly few short-term rewards.
Nevertheless, most people would agree that war is an “evil,” oppression is “injustice,” inequality is “unfair,” etc. These valuations are simple enough to make use of and understand without fully interpreting, investigating, or endorsing them on a philosophical basis. Yet they seem to be somehow innate within the human psyche.
The concept of morality, in other words, would carry no meaning, could not be universally identified with, if we did not already have some intrinsic basis on which to approach and understand it. The concept of morality itself is, then, something that is easily understood and simple enough to implement in our lives, but its foundation in “reality,” its transcending purchase within our lives, is harder to prove or disprove abstractly.
