greek-politicsfeatured in 30 works

Justice in the City

When everyone does their own proper work and no one meddles in another's, the city itself becomes just.

Justice in the city asks what makes a political community just. In the Republic (4th c. BCE), Plato defined civic justice as each part of the city doing its own proper task in harmony — a mirror of justice within the soul. Aristotle sharpened the analysis in Nicomachean Ethics V, distinguishing distributive justice (fair shares of goods and honors) from corrective justice (righting wrongs in dealings between people). Between them, they set the agenda for every later Western theory of justice.

How it traveled

Iliad
Ios · -700
explains
Works and Days
Ascra · -650
explains
On the murder of Herodes
Athens · -411
explains
The Third Tetralogy
Athens · -411
applies
The Second Tetralogy
Athens · -411
explains
The First Tetralogy
Athens · -411
explains
Against Eratosthenes
Athens · -403
applies
Against Callimachus
Athens · -402
explains
History of the Peloponnesian War
Athens · -400
explains
Against Andocides
Athens · -399
explains
Against Agoratus
Athens · -399
applies
Apology
Athens · -399
applies
Against Epicrates and his Fellow-envoys
Athens · -394
applies
On the Mysteries
Athens · -390
explains
Against Alcibiades
Athens · -390
applies
On the Peace with Sparta [attributed]
Athens · -390
explains
Panegyricus
Athens · -380
explains
Defense Against a Charge of Subverting the Democracy
Athens · -380
explains
On the Murder of Eratosthenes
Athens · -380
explains
For Polystratus
Athens · -380
applies
Against Nicomachus
Athens · -380
applies
Against Ergocles
Athens · -380
applies
Republic
Athens · -375
explains
Plataicus
Athens · -373
applies
Apollodorus Against Nicostratus
Athens · -366
applies
Against Aphobus II
Athens · -362
applies
Statesman
Athens · -358
explains
Areopagiticus
Athens · -355
explains
On the Peace
Athens · -355
explains
Hellenica
Athens · -354
explains

Key passages(20)

Origin Anchor — gr-justice-city↗origin

Fragments & Testimonia · Plato