Justice
The virtue of giving each person their due — and, for Plato, the inner harmony in which every part of soul and city does its proper work.
Justice (dikaiosynē) was the Greek name for fairness in our dealings and right order in the community. In the Republic, Plato (4th c. BCE) recast it as a harmony of the soul, in which reason, spirit, and appetite each keep to their role, mirroring a well-ordered city. Aristotle then made it more concrete, treating it as fairness in how goods are distributed and exchanged. The idea became the backbone of Western political and legal thought and a touchstone for later Stoic, Roman, and medieval theories of law.
How it traveled
- OdysseyIos · -700explains
- Works and DaysAscra · -650explains
- AgamemnonAthens · -458explains
- HistoriesThurii (Magna Graecia) · -425explains
- The Third TetralogyAthens · -411applies
- The Second TetralogyAthens · -411explains
- On the murder of HerodesAthens · -411explains
- Against the Stepmother for PoisoningAthens · -411explains
- Against EratosthenesAthens · -403applies
- Against CallimachusAthens · -402applies
- History of the Peloponnesian WarAthens · -400explains
- Against AgoratusAthens · -399applies
- Against AndocidesAthens · -399explains
- CritoAthens · -399explains
- Concerning the Team of HorsesAthens · -397explains
- Against Alcibiades 1Athens · -395applies
- ProtagorasAthens · -385explains
- Funeral OrationAthens · -380explains
- PhaedoAthens · -380explains
- Against ErgoclesAthens · -380explains
- PanegyricusAthens · -380explains
- RepublicAthens · -375redefines
- PlataicusAthens · -373explains
- PhaedrusAthens · -370explains
- Apollodorus Against CallippusAthens · -369explains
- ArchidamusAthens · -366explains
- Against Aphobus IAthens · -363applies
- On the PeaceAthens · -355explains
- MemorabiliaAthens · -354explains
- CyropaediaAthens · -354explains
Key passages(20)
Guide for the Perplexed · Moses ben Maimon (Rambam) · 1190 CE
המונח צדקה3 אשר לביטוי "צדקה" – הוא נגזר מן "צדק", שהוא הצדק ("אלעַדְל"). הצדק הוא: מתן מה שמגיע לכל מי שמגיע לו, ולתת לכל מצוי מן המצויים כפי הראוי לו. על פי המשמעות הראשונה (של מילת המקור 'צדק'), אי
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וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב (תהלים צט, ד): וְעֹז מֶלֶךְ מִשְׁפָּט אָהֵב, אֵימָתַי נִתַּן הָעֹז לְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁהוּא עוֹשֶׂה אֶת הַדִּין בְּעוֹבְדֵי כּוֹכָבִים
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In Ethica Nicomachea Paraphrasis (Pseudepigraphum Olim A Constantino Palaeocappa confectum et olim sub auctore Heliodoro Prusensi vel Andronico Rhodio vel Olympiodoro) · Anonymi In Aristotelis Ethica Nicomachea
Divisiones Aristoteleae · Pseudo-Aristotle
Divisiones Aristoteleae · Pseudo-Aristotle