I have a difficult time determining what I agree with more: people are just because they want to be morally correct; or people are just because they want the reward, and they fear the consequences they will face for being unjust.
I would love to believe that people want to be just because it's the right thing to do, but I don't fully agree with that. I think people can do things without the intention of getting a reward, but there is usually an unintentional reward that comes along with doing something that is "just".
If you see a homeless person and you give them money for no reason at all, you didn't do that to receive a reward. However, later on, you may feel good about yourself though for doing something good, that in and of itself is a reward. You didn't do it for fear of the consequences of not doing it, and you didn't do it to receive an award, but somehow you were still rewarded in the end.
So can anyone ever be "just" and not truly receive some sort of an award at the end, either intentionally or unintentionally? No good deed goes unpunished....or without reward.
According to the Invisibility Ring, from Glaucon, people are just because they are scare of the consequences. Would people do the same things if they have the chance to be invisible? I completely agree with you, we should do the right thing and be just. But naturally, we make our decisions based on the consequences, either good or bad. We do everything in order to receive an award, it is a bad thing, but it is true. Think about it: We go to college to get a degree, to find a better job, we do not go to college just because we want to learn a specific subject. This example does not have anything related to be just or not, but it is just a way to show we do everything with an intention.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you as well on "we should all be just in life" yet in your example of the homeless person and the giving of money. did you consider that even though you might have done that out of the kindness of your heart your inner self wants the reward of feeling like you did the right thing? in a way you are still pleasing your sense of doing something good; I think the no bad deed goes unpunished is correct and truly agree with you
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