Aristotle's Conception of Justice

Abstract

This article is based upon the text of the Nicomachean Ethics, which is commonly regarded as the authoritative statement of Aristotle's ethical system.We shall not enter into a discussion of the relationship of the Nicomachean Ethics to the Eudemian Ethics and the Magna Moralia.W. Jaeger (Aristoteles, Grundlegung einer Geschichte seiner Entwicklung, 1923) has put forth conclusive evidence that the Eudemian Ethics constitute an earlier course of lectures, disproving thus the old thesis of L. Stengel (Ueber die unter dem Namen des Aristoteles er haltenen ethischen Schrifter, in Abhandl.d. bayr.Akad.d.Wissensch., 1841) which declares it the work of Aristotle's disciple Eudemos.The Magna Moralia, on the other hand, is a much shorter treatise, probably compiled by a Peripatetic and based chiefly on the Eudemian Ethics, but also on parts of the Nicomachean Ethics.Arnim (Die drei Aristotelischen Ethiken, in: Sitzungsbericht d.Wiener Akad.202, 1924, 2d Abhand.),however, insists that the Magna Moralia is the first genuine work on ethics by Aristotle.It is interesting to note that the books V (that concerning Justice), VI and VII of the Nicomachean Ethics belong also to the Eudemian Ethics.The MSS of the latter omit these books referring the reader to the corresponding parts i4 -the Nicomachean Ethics.The fact that the three mentioned books of the Nicomachean Ethics constitute a series of somewhat independent and unrelated essays (particularly book V, which is not even mentioned in the list of topics contained in book U chapter vii of the Nicomachean Ethics) led some to assume that these parts originally belonged to the Eudemian Ethics and were afterwards included in the Nicomachean Ethics, the corresponding parts of the Nicomachean Ethics probably having been lost.This view could not, however, be maintained in the face of the fact that certain parts of the accepted Eudemian Ethics would demand a rather different treatment of the topics of the doubtful books.2 See, for instance, 1108 a 6 f. (quoted from "Aristotelis Opera, edit.Academia Regla Borusica, Berlin, 1831, vol.II, page 1108, left hand column-a-line 6); 1130 a 15; 1130 b5 f.; 8f.3 Cf.1129 a 32.Since Homer and Hesiod, the term Justice denotes in its wider sense conformity to an established authoritative law.4 Cf.Aristotle, "Politica," 1287 a 18.The English term "norm" probably comes closest to the Greek "nomos," but "nomos" means also what is right and just by an established convention.5 1129 a 6 f. ',