Abstract
In this chapter I aim to analyze Aristotle’s account of political justice (to politikon dikaion) in both the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics, since it is these accounts that are most relevant to his advocacy of moderation and mixed constitution, and I aim to show how justice and equality are crucial for the promotion of the common interest of the polis. In addition, I explore the connection made between justice, equality, democracy, liberty, and friendship, and attempt to further excavate Aristotle’s conception of political justice and moderation in the polis. We will see how this bears on questions in contemporary political philosophy concerning the role of justice as the most fundamental virtue for society, and as an institution that serves to fix the limits of human conduct and to settle the principles specifying the just distribution of benefits and burdens in a democratic society of equals.
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Notes
- 1.
Abbreviations: NE (Nicomachean Ethics), EE (Eudemian Ethics), Pol (Politics), Rhet (Rhetoric). Translations from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Politics are from Ross , D. (1980) Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, and Stalley , R. F. (1995) Aristotle. The Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, respectively, and the translations of Aristotle’s other works are from Barnes , J. (1984) The Complete Works of Aristotle, 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, with some alterations of my own.
- 2.
Young , C. M. (2007) “Aristotle’s Justice,” in Kraut , R. (ed.) The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell, p. 181.
- 3.
For a clear exposition of the main concepts of justice presented in NE V, see Young , C. M. “Aristotle’s Justice,” op. cit., pp. 179–180.
- 4.
Barker , E. (ed.) (1958) The Politics of Aristotle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 129.
- 5.
For an extensive discussion of Aristotle’s political naturalism and the relevant bibliography, see Leontsini , E. (2007) The Appropriation of Aristotle in the Liberal-Communitarian Debate, with a foreword by R. F. Stalley . Athens: Saripolos Library, pp. 49–92.
- 6.
See Miller , Fr. D. (1995) Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle’s Politics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 67.
- 7.
The notion of equality is also discussed at length in Nicomachean Ethics (V. 3) where Aristotle presents his theory on distributive justice . It should be pointed out, though, that Aristotle does not put forward the same account of justice in both the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics, so one should be careful to first examine these two accounts separately and then try to understand Aristotle’s conception of justice as a whole. I will not be discussing the NE account of justice here, since my focus is on the Politics account. For a discussion of the NE account of justice and the relevant bibliography, see Leontsini , E. The Appropriation of Aristotle in the Liberal-Communitarian Debate, op. cit., pp. 137–139.
- 8.
Aristotle ’s emphasis on equality is also stated in his discussion on community in various passages. A community is, according to Aristotle, a group which co-operates for the sake of some common good. This common good can vary from, for example, meals or property to eudaimonia: “There must be some one thing which is common to all the members and identical for them all, though their shares in it may be equal, or unequal. The thing itself may be various food, for instance, or a stretch of territory, or anything else of the kind” (1328a26–b1).
- 9.
Stalley , R. F. (1995) Aristotle. The Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 356–57.
- 10.
Stalley , R. F. Aristotle. The Politics, op. cit., p. 357.
- 11.
It should be noted that the concept of ‘mean’ in the case of justice is different from that in the other virtues, because the mean in this case does not refer to the middle between two equally bad habits, but to a mean in relation to things.
- 12.
Ancient liberty is usually defined as ‘self-mastery’, but ‘self-government’ is a wider term including that of self-mastery, describing more precisely the nature of liberty for the ancients in the ‘rule and being ruled’ elements. See Leontsini , E. The Appropriation of Aristotle in the Liberal-Communitarian Debate, op. cit., pp. 220–222.
- 13.
Sorabji , R. (1990) “Comments on J. Barnes,” in Patzig , G. (ed.) Aristoteles Politik: Akten des XI. Symposium Aristotelicum. Göttingen, p. 266.
- 14.
For an interesting discussion on relevant criticisms of this Aristotelian argument, see Robinson , R. (ed.) (1995) Aristotle Politics, Books III and IV, with a supplementary essay by D. Keyt . Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 31–33.
- 15.
Stalley , R. F. (1995), op.cit., p. 358.
- 16.
For the definition of political friendship as ‘common advantage friendship’, see Leontsini , E. (2013) “The Motive of Society: Aristotle on Civic Friendship, Justice, and Concord,” Res Publica, 19, 1 (2013), pp. 25–29.
- 17.
For the importance of the relation between justice, friendship and concord in Aristotelian political philosophy, see Leontsini , E. “The Motive of Society: Aristotle on Civic Friendship, Justice, and Concord,” op.cit., pp. 21–35.
- 18.
Leontsini , E. “The Motive of Society: Aristotle on Civic Friendship, Justice, and Concord,” op.cit., p. 29.
- 19.
Hampton , J. (1997) Political Philosophy. New York: Westview Press, p. 154.
- 20.
Hampton , J. ibid, p. 153.
- 21.
Hampton , J. ibid, pp. 32–33.
- 22.
Hampton , J. ibid, p. 158. It should be noted here that recently there have been many valuable attempts to relate Aristotelian political theory to contemporary political egalitarian theory in general, such as Nussbaum , M. “Nature, Function, and Capability: Aristotle on Political Distribution,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, suppl. vol. (1988), pp. 145–184; “Aristotelian Social Democracy,” in Douglass , R. B., Mara , G. & Richardson , H. (eds.) (1990) Liberalism and the Good. London: Routledge, pp. 203–252; Sherman , N. (1997) Making a Necessity of Virtue. Aristotle and Kant on Virtue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, which I did not have space to discuss here.
- 23.
Rawls , J. (1971) A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 3.
- 24.
Rawls , J. A Theory of Justice, ibid., p. 360.
- 25.
MacIntyre , A. (1985) After Virtue, 2nd ed. London: Duckworth.
- 26.
See on this Vlastos , G. “Justice and Equality,” in Waldron , J. (ed.) (1984) Theories of Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 41–76 and von Leyden, W. (1985) Aristotle on Equality and Justice. His Political Argument. London: Macmillan, pp. 6–10.
- 27.
NE 1131a 28–31. This is related to MacIntyre ’s discussion of the notion of desert (MacIntyre , A. (1985) After Virtue. London: Duckworth, 2nd ed., pp. 244–255). In this case, people disagree “because they are bad judges in their own affairs” and also “because both the parties to the argument are speaking of a limited and partial justice, but imagine themselves to be speaking of absolute justice” (Politics, 1280a 20–22).
- 28.
NE1131a 2, 1155a 27, 1157b 36, 1158b 29–34, 1132b 21–33, 1134b 8–18, 1161a 20–1161b 1.
- 29.
Nozick , R. (1974) Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Oxford: Blackwell.
Acknowledgment
I should like to thank Nick Zangwill for his insightful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.
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Leontsini, E. (2015). Justice and Moderation in the State: Aristotle and Beyond. In: Fløistad, G. (eds) Philosophy of Justice. Contemporary Philosophy: A New Survey, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9175-5_3
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