Aristotle Justice And Unjust Analysis

Inherently, not all people have the capability to live morally upright lives. Virtues are learned traits, and while a person may have a good disposition, his choices, which he makes based on learned information, affect the kind of life he lives. Therefore, there are just people and unjust people, as there are just actions and unjust actions. The ancient philosopher Aristotle wrote about an ideal city called “The Polis,” in which citizens lived a certain way in order to achieve a common good. Although Aristotle believed that everyone should live the good life (one of happiness), he also believed that in order to achieve the good life, people should get what they deserved, even if it meant injustice was a necessary consequence for some. In order

In Book V of Nicomachean Ethics, he states, “Now it would seem that justice and injustice are both spoken of in more ways than one, but since their homonymy is close, the difference is unnoticed,” and continues to justify this argument stating, “Hence the just will be both the lawful and what is fair, and the unjust will be both the lawless and the unfair” (NE V.i 1129b). Justice acts as the strongest virtue of them all because of its complete nature. When Aristotle refers to the virtue’s “complete nature,” he is referring to the fact that this virtue in particular applies not only to the individual, but also how he uses it in relation to others (NE V.i 1129b). Despite discussing the differences between justice and injustice, Aristotle clarifies that a person can commit unjust actions and still be a just person (NE V.vi 1134a). In other words, people do bad things, but they are not necessarily bad people. Later Aristotle adds that when a person is forced to do a just or unjust act, the person is neither just nor unjust—he

In his book Politics, Aristotle states that citizens should not have the same virtues as rulers, despite the need to understand both how to rule and how to be ruled over (Pol. III.iv 1277al). People must not commit injustices against one another in the ideal city. He states that people must also come together as a city to bring their own attributes and virtues to the Polis and act “like a single human being” (Pol. III.xi 1281bl). When the citizens come together, their job is to judge and deliberate. Those who rule must also know what the end goal is—the ideal life. For Aristotle states, “As long as this is unclear, the best regime must necessarily be unclear as well; for it is appropriate for those who govern themselves best on the basis of what is available to them to act in the best manner, provided nothing occurs contrary to reasonable expectation” (Pol. VII.i 1323al). In other words, rulers must act justly in order to be considered ‘good’