The idea that we should treat equals equally unless there is ample evidence in which to do otherwise is called justice. Justice is a foundational principle of all ethical reasoning, whether applied to business, politics or the environment. Justice itself underlies the concerns of everyone and everything around us. Justice prompts us to ask what equality is and what makes us decide someone or something is or is not equal to us. The ideal of justice is to apply the resulting ethics in a consistent manner to everyone and everything.
Compassion is as ancient an idea as justice and simply means we act on the needs of others when making ethical decisions. When one takes into account the needs of others, the ethical principle of sufficiency is at work. The principle of sufficiency elicits compassion and forces use to not only take into account others who are affected by our decisions, it also coaxes us into displaying empathy for the situations of others. Without sufficiency and compassion, justice remains precariously elusive.
The principle of solidarity prompts us to consider our relationships with the wider world. It is one thing to show duty to our family but another entirely to show duty to a stranger whom we have never met. Yet solidarity doesn't stop with humans; it also urges us to consider our relationships with the environment and everything around us. Solidarity also demands active participation in ethical reasoning. Without solidarity, the principles of justice and sufficiency and compassion are merely choices rather than the foundation of ethical reasoning.
These three foundational principles of ethical reasoning provide the basis for all other derivative principles and are applied to a variety of ethical considerations such as environmental ethics, social ethics, religious ethics and business ethics. Each of these classical principles works hand-in-hand, and no principle can stand alone. Justice is not enough without sufficiency and compassion. Without sufficiency and compassion, justice itself is unsustainable in most situations. Without solidarity, ethical reasoning becomes a self-defeating task, such as when world leaders cannot agree on social ethics or environmental ethics. Justices demands we work together to show compassion that creates sufficiency and sustainability in our conception and application of ethical reasoning.