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Political Philosophy

Justice

Throughout the history of philosophy justice has been a fundamental issue. Justice was a

concept of action and soul to the Greeks. The state was responsible for application of the law

rather than creation. Nature was the source of the law. According to the Cambridge dictionary

justice is the fairness considered when dealing with people. It also refers to the system of laws in

a country or sate that governs, judges and punishes people in case it is broken. This essay

discusses justice based on two theories of justice that were developed by two different and well

established philosophers namely: Plato and Aristotle.

Plato’s theory of justice

Plato regarded justice as the true principle of social life. The Republic is a book on

political science that uses Platonic method to reason through the place and nature of justice. In

his study Plato concluded that the Athenian politics of his time was majorly dominated by

ignorance and political selfishness that lead to the division of cities (Canevaro and Benjamin 22).

The aim of the Republic was thus to replace civil violence by harmony and replace selfishness

with a competent political system. The two main political evils of that time were incompetence
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and functionalism and the philosopher foreseen that any plan aimed at perfecting the city will not

succeed unless the two were taken care of. Plato concluded that justice was the only cure.

The Republic focuses on the nature and place of justice. Plato reads and analyses all

theories previously documented on justice and morality and comes up with his own

understanding of the concept. Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice both at the individual and

just city level. Plato states that justice occurs at two different levels. That is, the individual level

and the community level. The community level includes the state and the society.

According to Mishra Plato defined justice as having and doing what is one’s own, being

at the right place at the right time, doing what one is required to do to the best of one’s

knowledge and giving an equivalent value of what one has received both at the universal and

individual level. Justice is therefore a fundamental quality of moral life. A person’s soul is made

up three parts: reason, spirit and desire hence justice is the condition of an individual in respect

to these three parts. This is similar to a city since a city has three parts as explained by Socrates

using the parable of the chariot. This theory divides the city in to three classes: the rulers, the

auxiliaries and the artisans.

According to Plato’s theory of justice is a fundamental virtue the mother of all virtues

associated with the three parts of the human soul. According to Hamedi man must be educated in

order to understand justice and hence be like God (1164). Justice is a principle of functional

specialization in which everyone has a role to play. This leads to efficiency. Plato views justice

as a moral content, justice permeates and regulates all the other virtues of self-control, courage

and wisdom. In a nutshell according to Hamedi justice is the ultimate bond that holds the society

together (1164-1165).
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Aristotle’s theory of justice

Aristotle describes justice in two different meanings. First he describes justice as

conforming to the law and in his second meaning justice signifies equality. Justice on the sense

of equality has to do with external and measurable things. For example, the wage given to a

laborer should be an equivalent to the labor invested then it is said to be a just wage. The same

way a just law is the ideal mean in that it meets both parties midway between the two extremes

of excess and defect.

To make a clear difference between justice according to the law and justice according to

equality Aristotle further states that a person whose conduct is unjust and that his actions have

not conformed to certain moral principles is not necessarily as far as equality is concerned.

Aristotle states that justice is dependent to persons. To Aristotle therefore justice is action

based, that is, justice is virtue in action this means that each and every person should perform his

moral obligations so as to enable sufficient and just functioning of the community (Hamedi

1165).

Similarities and differences

The two theories on justice, Plato’s and Aristotle’s are complementary to one another

although they differ in many principles. For instance, the Plato’s theory of justice is based on the

doctrine that everybody should do his own while the Aristotle’s theory of justice is based on the

principle that everyone should have his own. The Plato’s theory of justice is therefore puts an

emphasis on a system of duties while Aristotle’s theory puts more importance on a system of

rights. Aristotle’s theory of justice states the quality of equality among members of the

community. The Plato’s theory on the other hand divides the community. Platonic justice divides
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the citizens in to three classes with different functions. Despite the differences the two theories of

justice one by Aristotle and the other by Plato have a number of similarities for instance, to both

justice meant the willingness to obey laws. The aim and the purpose of the two theories was the

same. To try and find out nature and capacity by which harmony, happiness, unity and virtue can

be practiced the actual society in the act of creating a perfect society. The purpose of both the

theories was to find and define the role and responsibilities of each individual in the community

pertaining to justice.

I would prefer Aristotle’s theory compared to Plato’s. The theory takes to account the use

of the law and incorporates equality among the community members hence no community

classes as compared to Plato’s theory. This ensures equitable fairness in one’s dealings with

others hence promoting the will of common good among the members of the community. The

theory is based on the common good of the whole community. The theory advocates for a system

of rights for everyone. These rights will ensure that there is harmony among the community

members since each member will understand his own rights and the rights of the other

community members thus ensuring good relationships and interactions among the community

members.

Works Cited
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Cambridge University Press. "JUSTICE | Meaning in the Cambridge English

Dictionary." Cambridge Dictionary | English Dictionary, Translations & Thesaurus,

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/justice.

Canevaro, Mirko, and Benjamin Gray, eds. The Hellenistic Reception of Classical Athenian

Democracy and Political Thought. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Hamedi, Afifeh. "The Concept of Justice In Greek Philosophy (Plato and

Aristotle)." Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2014, pp. 1163-1167.

Mishra, Ish N. "Plato's Theory of Justice." Countercurrents, 25 Aug. 2018,

countercurrents.org/2018/08/25/platos-theory-of-justice/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2018.