1. It's not
my idea. It's not like it's something I can take credit for, snootily, and say "ah, yes, my thought is clearly superior." It's something I've read in a large number of texts and think is true.
2. I think, simply, that we should call things by their real names. Don't call vengeance justice. Call it revenge. If another justice exists, then call it by its name; but don't confuse things.
I'm saying this because there are plenty of people (not that I am one of them) to whom revenge is an indispensable part of fair treatment, in a sense a way to honor and repay the grief of the victim. To assume a priori that these people are unreasoning savages that need the light of the ancient philosophers to guide their way is highly offensive.
To assume that I am calling people unreasoning savages, a priori, is highly offensive. I never said they were unreasoning savages. I never said that their feelings were invalid. Perhaps they don't want revenge at all, but believe it is their duty to enact it. I don't know.
I cited Aristotle because I believe he is right. I could have cited Kant or the Bible or any number of other texts, all saying the same thing; this is not an "ancient philosophers with guiding lights" problem.
And I'm not saying that I'm better, because I'm just as bad as anyone else. I'm no ubermensch.
I'm saying that things we do, just because we want them so badly, might not be the first thing we want to call "ethical" behavior.
And also that I
still don't think the death penalty is morally right, which has exactly the same issue you're already talking about. Hell, why don't we go back to the spectacle of the scaffold, the torture, drawing and quartering in order to show the criminal exactly how he made us feel? Don't I care about the right of the victims to enact vengeance on the body of the accused? Don't I care about violent justice being served?
No. Not really. I'd hope we're better than that.
Vec, would you (or anyone else, really) mind explaining what "equity" means to us poor non-Englishers who doesn't know the history/feel/specifics of use of the word? My translator just tells me it means "justice" or some Economic lingo stuff.
Just a minute... I have a passage to find.
This may take some time to get through, but this is what I mean.