I've seen this image and it made me wondering if the meanings of the words are correct. What I learned in school is that equal rights and opportunities is equity. However, in this image there is a step above that the author called justice. Doesn't equity already encompasses justice in its meaning?
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1By the diagrams alone NO. If we take the ladders to represent opportunities we see clearly one can have more opportunities with less fruit aka reward. Look how much fruit is on the side of the short ladder side. Justice is an ideal concept. Look how the tree is straightened in the Justice diagram. There are sticks to hold it on one side a a pulley on the other. Now look at how the fruit is equally distributed as well. Justice is not supposed to allow one side to have an advantage over another.The diagrams also express that unfairness is a result of something outside the control of human beings– LogikalCommented Aug 12, 2021 at 21:42
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1There is not one true meaning of words. Here the drawing introduces 4 concepts and gives them a name. Independently of the words proposed, if we concern ourselves with the ideas expressed and not the stamps put on it, it can be seen that what they call justice and equity are different approaches to the problem of inequality.– armandCommented Aug 12, 2021 at 22:39
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1The image is from George Washington university post, which specifies that "equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome". Equalizing outcomes is what the word came to mean now, but it is different from the traditional understanding of equity in law as discretion to deviate from legal rules when applying legislator's intent to individual circumstances.– ConifoldCommented Aug 12, 2021 at 23:59
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1 Answer
Equity (ἐπιείκεια, epikeia) is a virtue and part of justice by which one judges when
it is bad to follow the law, and [when] it is good to set aside the letter of the law and to follow the dictates of justice and the common good.
—as St. Thomas Aquinas describes it in his question on equity (Summa Theologica II-II q. 120), which cites Aristotle's definition that "epikeia is a kind of justice" (Ethic. v, 10).
