Abstract

It is often thought that Aristotle restricts the scope of justice to existing communities. Against prominent treatments of this problem, this paper argues that while Aristotle does indeed restrict the scope of justice, he recognizes eudaimonic reasons to cultivate co-operative and benevolent relations and to eschew manipulative and exploitative ones. His limitation of justice to existing communities thereby avoids the unsavory implications often attributed to it.

Highlights

  • Some relation of mutual benefit.1 My goal in this paper is to show that while Aristotle holds that justice depends on community, his view does not have the unsavory implications often attributed to it

  • Quite generally all justice is in relation to a friend, since justice exists among particular people who share something in common, and a friend is a person who shares something in common (EE 7.10 1242a19-22)

  • Understanding these claims in light of Aristotle’s broader theory of justice, Miller reads the passages from the Politics as condemning aggressive foreign policy on the grounds that “foreigners are capable of some limited forms of cooperation and community...and that justice of a sort applies wherever such cooperation is possible.”20 For Miller, we have obligations of justice to everyone with whom we can co-operate for the sake of a common good, and since that includes all human beings above a certain threshold of rational potentiality, justice extends to our relations with all human beings who are not radically incapacitated or undeveloped

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Summary

Introduction

Some relation of mutual benefit.1 My goal in this paper is to show that while Aristotle holds that justice depends on community, his view does not have the unsavory implications often attributed to it.

Results
Conclusion

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