Nicomachean Ethics · Chapter
Book V: Justice and Injustice explained
Aristotle distinguishes between justice as complete virtue (lawfulness) and justice as a particular virtue (fairness).
What happens
Aristotle distinguishes between justice as complete virtue (lawfulness) and justice as a particular virtue (fairness). He explores how justice relates to the common good, the mean, and the various forms of injustice, including taking more than one's share. The chapter also touches on the relationship between justice and other virtues, and the idea of justice within the individual soul.
Themes in this chapter
Justice and Fairness
Central theme of the chapter: Aristotle distinguishes between universal justice (lawfulness) and particular justice (fairness), exploring how justice is a complete virtue and a mean.
Virtue and Character
Justice is presented as a habit or trained faculty that makes a person apt to do just acts, and it is linked to the exhibition of complete virtue in relation to others.
Politics and the Individual
The chapter emphasizes that justice aims at the common interest of the community, and that the law prescribes acts of courage, temperance, and gentleness for the happiness of the state.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Justice, then, in this sense of the word, is complete virtue, with the addition that it is displayed towards others.”
Justice in its broadest sense is the entirety of virtue, but specifically exercised in relation to other people.
Aristotle defines universal justice as the full practice of virtue in social contexts.
“The laws prescribe about all manner of things, aiming at the common interest of all, or of the best men, or of those who are supreme in the state...”
Laws are designed to promote the common good, whether of everyone, the most virtuous, or the ruling class.
Aristotle connects lawfulness to justice, emphasizing the legislative aim for communal well-being.
“We see, then, that there is another sense of the word injustice, in which it stands for a part of that injustice which is coextensive with badness...”
Injustice in a narrower sense is a specific vice, distinct from general wickedness, involving taking more than one's share.
Aristotle distinguishes particular injustice (unfairness) from universal injustice (lawlessness).