Q&A Home > J > Justice What is a specific definition of Justice? Is there any book I should read? Justice can be defined as the moral quality, which perfects the will and inclines it to render to each and to all what belongs to them. While charity leads us to help others in their need, out of our own possessions, justice teaches us to give to other what belongs to them. Justice is the virtue that controls and regulates man's dealing with others. As a social being by nature, man will tend to be in contact with and dependent on other fellow men. These relationships will necessitate the recognition of rights and obligations that must be protected and regulated, if man is to live in peace and harmony with others.
Homer, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Cicero, and the Corpus Juris Civilis of Roman law (Instit. I,I) gave the same definition for justice. Homer cites it in the Odyssey (14,84), Plato in the Republic, Aristotle in the Rhetoric (1,9), Cicero in De finibus (5,23), St. Augustine in City of God (19,21), and St. Thomas Aquinas in his Commentaries on Aristotle's Ethics (5,1; no. 893). The Latin expression of this definition is most simple and, therefore, most effective, justice is "suum cuique" or "to everyone their due." An "injustice" means that something that belongs to someone has it withheld or taken away from him.
Justice demands that man's actions in civil society, conform themselves to the right in civil, social, economic, and political affairs. Whether a man "likes" acting justly or not, is to a great extent, inconsequential. With this in mind, we can then make the distinction between the act of justice and the virtue of justice. The "act" of justice is to render to someone what is due them within the context of civil society. The virtue of justice, however, is something distinct. The virtue of justice is a habitus or inclination by which the will tends towards choosing that which is right, the proper good in any particular situation. A "virtue" or virtus in itself, is, etymologically speaking, an ability, a power, a form of "manliness." A virtue inclines a power of the soul towards its proper object; it is a "habit" which enables a man to perform a good action with alacrity and perpetually. Temperance inclines the appetites towards moderation and submission to the commands of reason, fortitude controls the passion of fear so that life can be preserved and the difficult good attained, and justice is a perfection of the will by which it attains the proper good of the whole person and, also, advances the social good.
One major problem concerning the matter of justice is that so many people seem only concerned about the rights they have in justice, and not the obligations it imposes on them. The true Christian, knowing his inherent tendency to self-seeking, will try to counter these tendencies by trying to be more concerned about his obligations to others. Christians believe that God is the source of justice in the whole world. A Christian knows that the more just he is, in dealing with others, the more will God's justice be tempered by His mercy in dealing with him.
You can read more about justice at these websites:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/catholic_christianity/9165
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/063001/rel_0630010041.shtml
http://www.quango.net/verdict/scandalgodsjusticepart3.htm
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/cho/cho_03justice.html.
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