Historical Perspective on Social Justice

Abstract

From antiquity to date, communal clashes, inter tribal even to global crisis of war is antecedented by penetration of ill-will, unfair sharing formula of human and natural resources by a privileged few. This has resulted in high social, economic and political acrimony, hence the growing calls to reframe the politics of poverty reduction and social protection in particular, in terms of extending the ‘social contract’ to the poorest groups as people are getting increasingly aware of injustice. This premise is on the widening gap between the rich and poor on daily bases. With the increase in awareness, knowledge, technology and the advent of post-modernist era, the quest for social justice has heightened. All through the era of Philosophy, Philosophers differ on the definition, and what constitute social justice. Until now, there is no unifying explanation on what social justice is and consists of. This paper tends to look into the history of social Justice and different philosophers from different epochs. It also tried to expose the problems inherent in the definition and what constitute social justice, and cautioned that complimentary imperative should be employ to curtail human egoistic tendency that aids social injustice.

Keywords: Social justice, social contract, equality, complimentary reflection

Cite this Article

Joseph Nkang Ogar, Bassey Samuel Akpan. Historical Perspective on Social Justice. Omniscience: A Multi-disciplinary Journal. 2016; 6(3): 39–46p.