Justice (virtue)

Justice is one of the four cardinal virtues in classical European philosophy and Roman Catholicism. It is the moderation or mean between selfishness and selflessness - between having more and having less than one's fair share.

Justice is closely related, in Christianity, to the practice of Charity (virtue) because it regulates the relationships with others. It is a cardinal virtue, which is to say "pivotal" because it regulates all such relationships, and is sometimes deemed the most important of the cardinal virtues.

Aristotle said, Justice consists in a certain equality by which the just and definite claim of another, neither more nor less, is satisfied.

This is equal insofar as each one receives what he is entitled to, but may be unequal insofar as different people may have different rights: two children have different rights from a certain adult if that adult is the parent of one of them and not of the other. Aristotle developed the idea of equity to cover irregular cases so that “the ordinance is framed to fit the circumstances”.

Macrobius saw Justice as existing on four different planes or levels, rising from the everyday political virtue at the lowest to the Archetypal Form of Justice at the highest.

The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. In Colossians 4:1 St. Paul counsels "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, realizing that you too have a Master in heaven."

In Christian moral theology, Justice is a quality or habit which perfects the will and inclines it to render to each and to all what belongs to them. The object of the virtue of justice is the other person's rights, whether natural or bestowed by Church or State. Justice requires that all persons should be left in the free enjoyment of all their rights. The rights which belong to every human being inasmuch as he is a person are absolute and inalienable.

In Aristotle's wake,Thomas Aquinas developed a theory of proportional reciprocity, whereby the just man renders to each and all what is due to them in due proportion: what it is their moral and legal rights to do, possess, or exact. Justice toward God is called the "virtue of religion."

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