Justice
Definition and Explanation
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, point 1807:
- "Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor."
- Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, IIaIIae, question 58:
- Justice is a habit whereby a man renders to each one his due by a constant and perpetual will.
- Justice perfects the rational appetite, also called "the will."
- Aristotle's Rhetoric, Book I, Chapter 9:
- "Justice is the virtue through which everybody enjoys his own possessions in accordance with the law."
Examples from Western History and Literature
Eumaios to Odysseus
“The blessed gods have no love for a pitiless action, but rather they reward justice and what men do that is lawful.” (Eumaios, "seeker of the good," to Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, in "The Odyssey" 8.83-84)
The Shield of Achilles
On it he wrought in all their beauty two cities of mortal Men. And there were marriages in one, and festivals. / They were leading the brides along the city from their maiden chambers / Under the flaring torches, and teh loud bride song was arising. / The young men followed the circle of the dance, and among them / The flutes and lyres kept up their clamor as in the meantime / The women standing each at the door of her court admired them. / The people were assembled in the market place, where a quarrel / Had arisen, and two men were disputing over the blood price / for a man who had been killed. / One man promised full restitution / In a public statement, but the other refused and would accept nothing. / Both then made for an arbiter, to have a decision; / And people were speaking up on either side, to help both men. / But the heralds kept the people in hand, as meanwhile the elders / Were in session on benches of polished stone in the sacred circle / And held in their hands the staves of the heralds who lift their voices. / The two men rushed before these, and took turns speaking their cases, / And between them lay on the ground two talents of gold, to be given / To that judge who in this case spoke the straightest opinion. / But around the other city were lying two forces of armed men / Shining in their war gear." (Iliad XVIII.490-510)
Aeneas and Turnus
The man [Turnus] brought down, brought low, lifted his eyes / And held his right hand out to make his plea: / “Clearly I earned this, and I ask no quarter. / Make the most of your good fortune here. / If you can feel a father’s grief––and you, too, / Had such a father in Anchises––then / Let me bespeak your mercy for old age / In Daunus, and return me, or my body, / Stripped, if you will, of life, to my own kin. / You have defeated me. The Ausonians / Have seen me in defeat, spreading my hands. / Lavinia is your bride. But go no further / Out of hatred.” / Fierce under arms, Aeneas / Looked to and fro, and towered, and stayed his hand / Upon the sword’s hilt. Moment by moment now / What Turnus said began to bring him round / From indecision. Then to his glance appeared / The accurst swordbelt surmounting Turnus’ shoulder, / Shining with its familiar studs––the strap / Young Pallas wore when Turnus wounded him / And left him dead upon the field; now Turnus / Bore that enemy token on his shoulder–– / Enemy stil. For when the sight came home to him, / Aeneas raged at the relic of his anguish / Worn by this man as trophy. Blazing up / And terrible in his anger, he called out: / “You in your plunder, torn from one of mine, / Shall I be robbed of you? This wound will come / From Pallas: Pallas makes this offering / And from your criminal blood exacts his due.” / He sank his blade in fury in Turnus’ chest. / Then all the body slakened in death’s chill, / And with a groan for the indignity / His spirit fled into the gloom below. (Aeneid XII.1264-1298)
Cicero about Caesar
Cicero says that Caesar “undermined all laws, divine and human, in order to establish that dominance which his erroneous belief had targeted for himself. What is distressing in this situation is that the ambition for civil office, military command, power and glory is usually nursed by men of the greatest and most outstanding talent” (I.26). He says later, “I present to you the man who lusted to become king of the Roman people and lord of all the world––and who achieved his aim! Anyone who says that this ambition is honourable is a lunatic; it justifies the extinction of laws and liberty, and regards the squalid and accursed subjugation of them as magnificent… How many more such foes and friends, then, do you imagine confronted the king who exploited the Roman people’s army to subjugate the Roman people itself, and forced the state which was not only free but also the ruler of the world to become his slave? What blemish, what scars do you think he had on his conscience? Can anyone’s life appear useful in his own eyes, when its status is such that the man who deprives him of it will be held in the greatest gratitude and esteem? Thus if the things which seem most useful of all are not in fact useful, because they are steeped in shame and disgrace, that should be enough for us to believe that nothing is useful which is not honourable.” (On Duties III.83-85)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Green Knight’s mercy on Sir Gawain: “Then the other lord laughed and lovingly said, / “I hold it made whole, any harm that I had. / You are cleanly confessed, sir, and cleared of your faults. / You paid penance today on the point of my blade. / I dispense with your promise; you’re polished as clean / As if you’d not erred since you stepped on this earth. / I give you the girdle and all its gold fringes. / Since its green like my gown, Sir Gawain, you’ll perhaps / Remember our meeting when making your way / Among princes of price, a palpable token / Of the chance of the Green Chapel among chivalrous knights.” (SGGK 4.2389-2399)
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.