The Discovery of a Normative Theory of Justice in Medieval Philosophy: On the Reception and Further Development of Aristotle???s Theory of Justice by St. Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

Translated from the German by John D. CochraneAristotle earns the distinction of having put forward the first comprehensive philosophical theory of justice. After the end of the antique world, St. Thomas Aquinas was the first philosopher and theologian to return to Aristotle's theory of the just. Not only did he do so with the requisite systematic precision; he also developed a new philosophical interpretation of justice. In the present article I shall outline, with the brevity expected of me here, the fundamentals of Aristotle's theory of justice. This will be followed by a summary of the core aspects of Aquinas's notion of justice, whose grounding in normative reason will be identified in Aquinas's treatise on law and political theory, and explicated accordingly. I.Aristotle's theory of justice had its precursors; there were interpretations of the just in Greek literature, rhetoric, and politics, as well as philosophy, to which Aristotle also makes explicit reference on a number of occasions. Aristotle, however, is the first to formulate a comprehensive theory of justice. To understand Aristotle's theory, we must turn to Book 5 of the Nicomachean Ethics. 1 Here, Aristotle first distinguishes between a type of justice that he interprets as "complete" and at the same time as "complete virtue" or "virtue entire," and a type of justice which is to be understood as "part of virtue."

Legal Justice Discourse on Land Rights in the Indonesian Constitution

“…Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, states that justice is a virtue related to human relations. Thomas Aquinas distinguishes justice, namely general justice (justitia generalis), namely justice according to the will of the law, which must be carried out in the public interest, and special justice, namely justice based on equality or proportionality (Lutz-Bachmann, 2000). The distribution of land is follows the public interest, although it still needs to be improved, especially the distribution of land to conglomerates through group companies.…”