What is a justice-as-balance metaphor?

What is a justice-as-balance metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which justice is represented as a twin-pan balance, such that the wrong-doing on one side must be balanced by appropriate punishment on the other side.

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	An eye for an eye. Let the punishment fit the crime.

Generic
	A justice-as-balance metaphor is a kind of
	Conventional metaphors in English

Source
	Johnson 1987

Context for this page:

Concept module: justice-as-balance metaphor
In modular book: Metaphors in English, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H. Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Lexicon

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 September 1998