Here’s a thought for my revolutionary heart
Take a deeper look at history, it’s there to pick apart
See the people at the top, they get to do just what they want
‘Til after a while the people at the bottom finally get smart
Then they start to holla, “Revolution”
Tired of livin’ here, destitution
Fuck that lootin’, can you tell me what’s the best solution?
I used to think it was to overthrow oppressors, see
If we destroy the system, that means we’ll have less of greed
But see, it’s not that simple
I got to thinkin’ about the history of human nature
While this instrumental played, then I realized somethin’ that made
Me wonder if revolution was really ever the way
Before you trip and throw a fit over these words I say
Think about this shit for a second, you heard the way
The children in abusive households grow up
Knockin’ girlfriends out cold—that’s called a cycle
Abused becomes the abuser and that’s just how life go
So understand
You get the power, but you know what power does to man?
Corruption always leads us to the same shit again
So when you talk ’bout revolution, dawg, I hear just what you sayin’
What good is takin’ over when we know what you gon’ do?
The only real revolution happens right inside of you
I said what good is takin’ over when we know what you gon’ do?
The only real revolution happens right inside of you, nigga
J. Cole – High for Hours

Introduction:
Justice is not the end-goal, it is a requiem to rectify immorality. It is not a state of being, it is an action. Justice is only required when morality has failed, when a being has been wronged due to the laws of nature, and to a lesser degree, of man. Justice can then be thought of as instrumental to the state of true morality, of a state of justice-less-ness. A society without justice is better than one who is reliant upon justice. This paper will aim to argue on this basis, using the theorems positioned by Plato, Confucius, and St. Augustine upon the notion of what justice is. The purpose of this paper is to define justice as a active spectrum of being, and not as a static state of existence ; the definition of justice as a rebellion.

The Platonic Notion of Struggle:
Applied to this essay at the core of the essence is the notion of the segmented soul, in constant struggle, in constant motion. This notion is first codified into manuscript by the great Plato and his notion of the tripartite soul. This segmenting of soul into its subsequent agents (spirit, reason and appetite) creates a product of which exists within a range on a spectrum. This then becomes a spectrum for the totality of human action and the constraints of said action. This ‘spectrum-like’ effect is again replicated by St. Augustine in his notion of (lesser) good (of which is further expunged in later paragraphs of this paper).
In the deduction of Plato, one would conclude that Justice (is necessarily) the conquering of the segments, of the whole; the triumph of the man over the beast, the formation of the true-human-being, the philosopher-king. This notion is reflected throughout the ages, and transcends space and time. It is truly one of the greatest of concepts found to be translated throughout various cultures and languages. Through this struggle, what the Koran dubs as Jihad, one is made to be a ‘better human’. Even in the Koranic sense, the struggle within supersedes any and all ‘material’ basis for struggle, in such that, one must struggle for humanity before he can struggle for the human. This struggle is the core facet of what makes us human and non-human. The origins of this struggle then lies within the very biology of our creature, of reason formulated within the confines of a beastly appetite, combined and animated through the spirit. This is the most just of all rebellions, the conquering of the self.

The story is, that Leontius, the son of Aglaion, coming up one day from the Piraeus, under the north wall on the outside, observed some dead bodies lying on the ground at the place of execution. He felt a desire to see them, and also a dread and abhorrence of them; for a time he struggled and covered his eyes, but at length the desire got the better of him; and forcing them open, he ran up to the dead bodies, saying, Look, ye wretches, take your fill of the fair sight. (Book 4)

The wretch is us, the saint is us, in this notion of justice, the human-being is teleological to the absolute state of. This existentialist viewership is the core principle which enlightens the house in which it is carried. This facet and ‘strength’ is what holds together the very fabric of the human logos ; it is the basis through which direction is crafted, the foundation of agency.
Therefore the end goal cannot be justice ; as made evident by the previous argument, justice is teleological to the state of morality, to the state of being human. The virtue of justice is therefore contained within its functional capacity at achieving moral being. With the effect added by Plato that, “things perform their function well if they have the virtue appropriate to them, and badly if they have the relevant vice” (353c), the appropriate virtue (of justice) therefore is balance and vice (of justice) as being imbalance. The human in the state of morality is therefore one who has rebelled against factors of imbalance to create a balanced (being) between appetite, reason, and spirit.

Plato’s Agent of Justice : The Self
Based upon the interplay between the segments (of soul) the individual is deduced to be the originator of justice. It is through the action/implementation (of justice) by individual agents (through justice) which creates a just rebellion. As Dragutin Klarjic states in his work Justice as the Fundamental Value of the Individual and as The Essence of Plato’s state,
Justice as the basic virtue would secure, in its actual implementation, a state of social which the identity of the citizen and of his city polis would be realized through the realization of good and of justice (p 275).
This instrumental usage of justice is the core facet which should be deduced from the argument made. Justice is extrinsic to the capacity and goals of justice, in such that through its usage one can arrive to the the dynamic combination of the totality of being within the cosmos. As stated above, it is through the realisation of justice that one arrives (in a transitional sense) to the state of being just. With justice being balance, the end goal itself becomes the totality of everything, of cosmological unity. As stated by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Plato conceives of justice as the excellent state of the soul”. With excellence being defined previously as the balance of appropriate essences between each other, the excellence of justice is cemented in its balancing act within the human essence. It is of no coincidence that the ancient tittle of The Republic was titled On Justice (Stanford, 2020). As such, one clearly finds the pathways to the state of morality contained within a institutional dimension, upon the notion placing the individual as the foundation of the state of justice.

Confucianist Understanding of Justice: Action of Balance
The balancing of essences (of justice) as the action which creates justice and thereby a just society is replicated again by the great Confucius within his theorems. In the Zhong Yong, he maintains that human nature is composed of central tendencies toward feelings such as joy, anger, sorrow, and well‐being. It is in a state of equilibrium before these roots of feelings are activated. But when we are confronted with real concrete life situations, our feelings are released in response to those situations. If these feelings meet the goal of life in those situations, it leads to a harmony between the inner and the outer; if not, disorder and dissonance will result to the detriment of peace and justice in the society. (Chung -Ying Chen’s, 2007)
Again the forefront of discussion posed by Confucius is in such striking similarity with an author who was an entire continent removed (Plato) that one is left in a feeling that one is caught in dialogue between two great masters amongst themselves. The purity of balance is again the stressed variable of which is dependent clause to the state of justice. To bring about this concept in relation to the thesis is the notion of rebellion against the forces of disorder as the primary just rebellion. Again in parallel with the Platonic sense, it is both: first fermented within the individual, and then secondly, extending to the polis or society at large through the application of. The beauty of these synonymies is that it then translates the notion of justice as a teleological process to ascertain/create the spectrum of justice. The word spectrum is specifically used in such that as justice is the balance of these decentralized tendencies, which cannot exist as a static products, it must necessarily therefore exist as a dynamic entity(s).

The Dynamics of Yi:
Dynamic action is stipulated forth is the primary mechanism for both the ability for one to reach the Dao and for also how to be removed as far possible from it. It is this spectrum vibrancy which lies within the poles of existence, and thru this vibrancic mechanisms that one ascertains justice. Confucius says,
‘Exemplary persons (junzi ) in making their way in the world are neither
bent on nor against anything; rather, they go with what is appropriate
(yi)’ (4.10) (M. Sim p.202)
This notion of vibrant neutrality of order, in such that yi is appropriate based upon the balance of applications towards any one subject. There is no static or one answer, justice is defined to be of a holistic and dynamic nature. What is again replicated is the possession of not a single body of knowledge, but rather the bodies of knowledge (in totality) which are to be utilized to/for any one action. The appropriateness of action therefore relies upon its mediation ‘between poles on a spectrum’.

The Appropriate Action: Zehngyi, the Rectification
Noted by Confucius is the active participation of the being into processes of ‘refinement’ allows for one to balance towards the Dao. The beauty of this justice is that it is founded in parallel to the natural law (of Plato) that arises out of the agency of the self. The Dao in similarly sense (to Plato) is the use of the instrumental capacities of human action (experience) to achieve. As stated by Confucius in Analects,
It is by nature that we are close to each other, but by habit (via experience) we become far from each other’ (…) ‘it is by learning that a self‐cultivating person reaches the Dao’.
This correctness of rectitude is the principle of Zhengyi ( righteousness in rectitude) and is seen as the grand unity of the world and the implicit definition of justice by Confucius (Cheng. 355). This again formulates well into the thesis by this paper in such that justice is seen as an action, justice is seen as the proper rebellion in the rectification of natural disorders (arising from the imbalance of essences/relationship). This application of this principle coupled with the adaptive and holistic nature of yi (appropriate action in relation to phenomenas) creates the just state. Again the beauty of this extension of perfection is that it is first worked from within and only then could be extended outwards. Only through experience ( and then habituation of) into nature as the ‘learning” makes one the self-cultivated person. This runs in direct parallel to the philosopher-king of Platonic thought. It is through the cultivation of oneself that one can even begin the cultivation of another and thereby-society. Cheng provides a beautiful rendition of this translation as thus,
On the basic and deep level, let us treat people with ren: On this level I must first treat myself with ren, namely making effort to discipline myself (keji) so that I can follow proper social rites( fuli). From achieving this I can extend my ren to others: The purpose for doing so is to benefit the others as ends, but not necessarily for any specific goods or benefits.But a human person is always a holistic entity, his deep identity cannot be separated from his actual status, role, and position or situatedness in social or community life. Yet his identity,however, is not merely to be reduced to these. He needs to be tended with specific considerations in light of his uniqueness. Hence yi must be considered.To be yi to him is to make sure that he can be benefited by ren not just as whole person but as a person in relation to others as well as a member of a community. In this sense, yi, like any other virtue, is an instrument and a way for fulfilling the ren under differentiating and particularizing circumstances. (P.354)

St. Augustine’s Justice:
My heart grew somber with grief, and wherever I looked I saw only death. … I had become a puzzle to myself, asking my soul again and again, ‘Why are you downcast? Why do you distress me?’ But my soul had no answer to give. (4.4.3)
The final author of which will be discussed in relation to this thesis is the great Saint Augustine. His combination of Platonic logic along with such magnificent mysticism leaves one in a daze of both beauty and understanding. His effect upon this school of philosophy is not in the least as he becomes one of the ancient bridges of knowledge between the east and the west. Augustine’s occupation as the final author is a tribute to his ability to synthesis theorems from both the east and west due to his transcendental philosophy. Perter Burnell from the Journal of History of Ideas would agree with this claim in that ,
Augustine’s general notion of justice-which applies to any society, indeed any human enterprise-is that it consists in devotion to reunion with God and ultimately in nothing else. Injustice, therefore, consists in disordered love, and Augustine describes it as a form of lust (177).
The product of ‘disordered love’ as being the anthesis to reunion to god, is such a marvellous definition in that it is (due to) love that causes an imbalance of (love). This beautiful spectrum is the heart of Augustinian logos, in that the entirety of the existence is based upon a single source, and the (imbalanced) properties of that source create states of immorality. This lends into his notion of the spectrum of morality as being “less-good”, in that lower actions compromise of the very fragments which constitute the entirety of existence. The fragmentation (of soul) is the greatest hinderance to achievement of justice as stipulated by Augustine. The greatest hinderance to the achievement of “truth with action” was due the nature of the “inner self as a house divided against itself” (City of God, 8.8.1). This comment re-iterates the position of both previous mentioned authors in such that it is not truth alone, nor is truth the state to which one is aiming towards, but rather truth coupled with action which causes the attainment of true justice. The lends further credence to the authorship of justice within oneself as the supreme rebellion; of the instrumental use of justice to achieve the totality of being, at the centre of the cosmos, the just rebellion, the city of god.

Parallels of Plato and Confucius – Creatures of Habit:
Of a greater coincidence and relativity of weight is the notion of habit. As mentioned by the Confucian line of logic, Habit is the perfection of action into the nature of the being. It is through mechanised internalisation of just (appropriate) action which tames the beast and aggregates to the union of being with the cosmological order of such (being). In regards to this Augustine states,
It is therefore no strange phenomenon partly to will to do something and partly to will not to do it. It is a disease of the mind, which does not wholly rise to the heights where it is lifted by the truth, because it is weighted down by habit. (8.9.1)
Taken in another light these words sound like they come from either Plato or Confucius, and here-in lies the beauty of the study of these three, though all existed within different cultures, the theories are run concurrently through the very same ethos of rebellion. The power to create justice comes from the being who has first mastered him/herself. In other words, there is no just rebellion without first the just (wo)man, and as such, the rebellion of the just (wo)man from himself/herself, is the purest and most just of all rebellions. Therein lies the parallel to Mr. J. Cole’s verse mentioned at the origin of this essay, “what good is taking over when we know just what you gone do, the real revolution happens right inside of you”. The purpose of this essay is to show that justice is an action, that justice is a rebellion, through the usage of these authors, it has been evidently demonstrated to be of such an effect. The cross-over of habit of but one variable, the usage of the balance of humours is another; in beauty, through multitudes of languages, the primal agency is the same: the human conquering himself/herself through action of justice. Whether it be on papyrus of ancient scrolls or on digital codes streaming through Spotify, the just rebellion remains the same.

The Dynamic Nature of Justice:
Synthesised from the above arguments leads one to conclude (in support of the thesis) that justice (and thereby the just society) is of a dynamic nature, existing upon a spectrum of products. Professor Burnell would again agree to this justification, stating
In principle Augustine’s view of civil life is not, therefore, static. It does not make endless cooperation with wickedness a necessary concomitant of a Christian’s civil duties. Though a long way from the sort of “liberation theology” that regards the Gospel as predominantly political, Augustine’s position implicitly allows for considerable development in radically reformative or even revolutionary political direction (187)
Burnell places the origins of Liberation Theology then within the confines of the Augustinian realm, a befitting tribute as the philosophy of Augustine could be seen as a call to action in-of-itself. Adding to the fact that “mortality’s (legitimate need) original rebellion arose out of need (ex indigentia)”, this solidifies the position of dynamisms, of justice as rectification of crimes against the natural human. This alludes to the aspect of the combination of elements (of justice) in the appropriate proportion, to create the appropriate response. The spectrum of action (of morale capacities) is again reiterated by fact that “all civil life is lived in the middle ground between perfection, stopping well short of perfection, and utter chaos” (180).

Cross Dimensional Approach: Humanitas
One rather poignant agent to be derived from the above arguments is the correctness of action in regards to societal interaction. All three authors primary medium and focus of action is humanity; in such that justice (intrinsically) lies stillborn, without merit, in a state of idleness, it is via its application to the relationship of humanity (interstitially) wherein lies its true zenith.
You vent your rage on him to the point of death. And what about after death, where none of your punishment now reaches that bad man, and only the malice of another bad man is finding expression? That’s mindless madness, not avenging justice (Ogle, Sheathing the Sword, 733).
The beauty and cultivation of humitas is again a focal point for the three great authors previously mentioned. In analysis of Augustinian humitas, Professor Ogle states examining Augustine’s letters, what we find is a constant exhortation to humanitas for Augustine(…) the man of humanitas is the true model for the good judge, and not the man of apatheia. (721).
The sharing of humanity amongst humanity can thereby be the teleological direction of just action, of just rebellion. Platonic and Confucian verses capture this vibration as well in both the Platonic application of “Just Duty” and Confucian aspect of “Just Relationship”. Confucius states with great symmetry on this matter thusly,
If you govern effectively …. What need is there for killing? If you want to be truly adept (shan 善), the people will also be adept. The excellence (de 德) of the exemplary person is the wind, while that of the petty person is the grass. As the wind blows, the grass is sure to bend. (Analects 12.19) (May Sim Interpretation p. 198).
Of great note within this rendition is that it is not the exemplary person himself/herself which cultivates the exemplification of others, but rather the possession (of the capacity) of excellence which allows this process to transcribe. It is simply not enough to be, one must also do. The balance of the material with the spectral is harmonised in such natural motions. Injustice within society therein is caused by the injustice within (wo)man, and the justice within (wo)man leads to the justice of society and social relations. Augustine puts it rather more bluntly, stating that it is due to our “inherited moral enfeeblement” which causes “ all civil societies to be unjust in some degree (Burnell, 180). This moral enfeeblement is as made evident by the previous axioms, translates therefore to the imbalance(s) of human essence.

Cross Dimensional Approach: The Student of the Cosmos – Philosophy
The last analysis that this paper will deduce is the nature of knowledge (of) which is required to ‘balance’ the justices within and arise to a state of perfect being. As Plato was one of the first to deliver coinage to the term, it is befitting we should examine his claim of the one who has mastered his segments, the philosopher-king. Stated by Derek Cross upon the definition of such a entity are these remarks
“The attributes of the philosopher king, then, are those of the good judge and guardian combined: knowledge of good and evil, rule, and concern for the whole. All of theseare second-order attributes. It seems clear, then, that if the philosopher-king has wisdom, he will have wisdom of a second-order variety. This means, for all practical purposes, that the wisdom of the philosopher-king is the knowledge of good and evil (p. 90)” (p. 156).
Astutely and correctly identified within this line of reasoning (first by Plato and subsequently by Prof. Cross) is the totality of knowledge coming not just from ‘good’ but in combination with the knowledge of ‘evil’. In this ‘eight-fold’ path-hood-ness of action, again the stressed variables are not justice nor injustice, but rather the balance of (said humours). This further adds to the spectrum-like-product of justice existing between two poles. The totality of human action if to be found within these poles. This dichotomy is the frame of reference that exists for our capacity of justice. With such beauty, the totality of being could be deduced from the above stated arguments by such masterful authors.
Further adding to this thesis, Augustine parallels the Platonic paradigm, esteeming those who “have made the pursuit of wisdom their profession in the midst of the vanity of this world” (19.1) Professor Ogle sources the point made by Augustine, stating, “entering their world, we hear that philosophy is the pursuit of the Supreme Good. It is a way of life ordered toward happiness” (Ogle, p. 722). This habitual process of ordering , by a philosopher, of the segmented soul, is transcendentally lifted from these authors (Plato, Confucius, St. Augustine) in such striking similarity, one is left aghast to find any difference of epistemology. Confucian logic as previously mentioned, entitles this being “the self-cultivating person”, with the emphasis on the ing of cultivating; as it is a active, dynamic, and spectrum of a production (of justice).

Conclusion:
There can truly be no conclusion to this transcendent discussion between such mystical sources of knowledge, that is the point; Justice is a process, Rebellion is an action. The communion of both creates the Just Rebellion, first within and then without. The three primary authors mentioned within this thesis conclude upon the very premise which originated this work, that justice is an active spectrum of being, that Justice is not a state, it is an act.
That your enemies have been created is God’s doing; that they hate you and wish to ruin you is their own doing. What should you say about them in your mind? “Lord be merciful to them, forgive them their sins, put the fear of God in them, change them!” You are loving in them not what they are, but what you would have them to become.”
— Saint Augustine

Works Cited

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