Justice

Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue. Likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is not made right by greater goods shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by a larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in just society liberties of equal citizenship are taken A's settled; rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining, or to calculus of social interests. The only thing that permit us to acquiesce an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one. Analogously an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary for avoiding even greater injustice. A's first virtues of human activities, truth and justice are uncompromising.

A theory of justice, Rawls, p3.

The values I advocate

Equality is the most fundamental value for an institution. Then, what follow it are liberty, fairness, impartiality, democracy, constutionality and so on.
If I am disabled in mind, do I have a right to vote? You may say I have no capacity of reasoning, then I am able to vote. But the fact is that I have interest in myself, and therefore have the right to vote on relevant issues. So, even I have no reason or rationality, I still have competing right to vote. I can have my representative who should be my kin relative. He or she will be entitle by me to vote for me.

君君臣臣父父子子

Diagram two ways to analyze the grammar of this statement from the Analects. "君君臣臣父父子子" (ruler ruler minister minister father father son son). Argue for one of them using a radical translation argument.

 君君 臣臣 父父 子子

君君臣臣 父父子子

The older, the better?

"The most important thing for any new translation is to start with the original form of the Daodejing. Given recent archeological discoveries, we know that is not the traditional(Wang Bi)version. The Mawangdui version certainly better for getting the original intent of the author, Laozi." Discuss this theory of the text. Correct any errors you find.

Doctrine and meaning

Explain how assigning different meanings to a word can affect the doctrine we attribute to an author. What about the reverse? Can the conviction that he/she must believe some doctrine affect what meaning we assign to a term? Explain.

Danger of generalization of folk theory

Western interpreters often assume that everyone accepts their "folk theory" of language(the theory that the meanings of terms are private ideas). Is there any danger in making that assumption in interpreting ancient Chinese philosophy? Explain.

Principle for translation manual

Which principle should we apply in selecting a radical translation "translation manual" for ancient Chinese? Why?