enquiriesalevelphilosophycouk Michael Lacewing Justice Justice the virtue is the disposition to act justly and desire justice the state of affairs Justice the virtue is defined in terms of just acts unlike other virtues ID: 637807
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Aristotle on justice Michael Lacewing" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Aristotle on justice
Michael Lacewingenquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk
© Michael LacewingSlide2
Justice
Justice (the virtue) is the disposition to act justly and desire justice (the state of affairs)Justice the virtue is defined in terms of just acts, unlike other virtues
Aristotle’s account of just acts is largely deontological
Justice in the wide sense: what is legal (virtuous)
Justice in the narrow sense: fairness
© Michael LacewingSlide3
Justice as fairness
The principle that each person receives their ‘due’. Justice
is concerned with
goods
, e.g. money
, safety or suffering,
in
which we can obtain some advantage relative to other people. To be unjust is to seek to gain more than one’s fair share of something good or avoid one’s fair share of something bad.
© Michael LacewingSlide4
Justice as fairness
Justice in distributionTreat equals equally, i.e. reward by meritJustice in rectification
Correct injustice – the focus is not on (
in)equality
of individuals but unjust act committedAim: to remove the unjust ‘gain’ and compensate the victim
© Michael LacewingSlide5
Development
Unjust state of affairsAn unjust distribution that has not resulted from an unjust action, e.g. illnessUnjust act
An act which results in injustice;
if
involuntary, it is merely unjustActing unjustlyVoluntarily committing an unjust act; if not by
choice,
the person is not bad
Choosing to act unjustlyWorst form of unjust act© Michael LacewingSlide6
Unjust treatment
To be unjustly treated, the unjust action must be against your wishes
You cannot be treated unjustly
voluntarily
You cannot treat yourself unjustly
© Michael Lacewing