- Justice requires that we grant to individuals what they earn (positive or negative) by their actions. To be treated justly, however, cannot itself be a privilege that an individual must earn by his or her actions, for any such requirement would lead us into logical circularity (
). The principle of justice must depend on some prior fact of nature. As already noted (p. 3.10:20), we should grant justice to an individual because he or she has a conceptual, volitional consciousness and is therefore capable of generating or destroying objective values. Recognizing this innate potential in human nature, we offer fair treatment (along with respect, dignity, and certain other values) even to young children, who have not yet had the opportunity to "earn" it by their actions. In short, just treatment is a kind of birthright, which need not be "earned," but which accrues to a person as a consequence of his or her nature as a human being. Although this distinction may seem esoteric, it will have important implications when we examine the implementation of justice in a political context (in the last section of this course). 
