Yes that's how I understood the quote."A justification for the poor" would be "a reason for the poor to exist."
It's a little bit stronger than simple "fairness." It carries a much stronger political message.Yes that's how I understood the quote.
So, the "justice" here just means "Justice is fairness in the way that people are treated", right?
Yes, I understand. The book seems to have been written at the time of "cold war" (first editions) and, of course, it carries a strong political message. I just said that the meaning of "justice" here is the main one which all dictionaries basically give as "fairness".It's a little bit stronger than simple "fairness." It carries a much stronger political message.
Not that I said about only one word as a definition. I rather meant "subheading". E.g.:/I just said that the meaning is the main meaning of "justice" which all dictionaries basically give as "fairness"./
You are not quite correct, Vik. "Justice" is a complex and multifaceted concept. It MIGHT mean 'fairness,' but in Britain at one time, there were special courts to look at the issue of whether a just decision was a fair one. "Meaning" in a robust sense, is rarely captured in 5 words in a dictionary, let alone one, except for the most trivial cases. "Quickly" means "rapidly."
In any case, in Barmina's example in the OP, the meaning would be greatly modified or limited if one substituted according your proposed, 'main meaning.'
To my native-speaker mind, "just" and "fair" are completely different categories, although sometimes they overlap.justice /ˈdʒʌstɪs/n
- the quality or fact of being just
- the principle of fairness that like cases should be treated alike
Collins Cobuild gives almost the same meaning for "Fairness"I'm a bit amazed that they put "fairness" as the first definition of "justice." I would say that the first definition should be "the state or condition of being just." The Collins dictionary here does so:To my native-speaker mind, "just" and "fair" are completely different categories, although sometimes they overlap.the quality or fact of being just