We all have a different opinion related to justice, but what did Aristotle think?
Brief random bits about Aristotle
Aristotle is not a name I’d think you don’t know. Dante even called him „ the master of those who know”
The Italian poet Dante says of Aristotle in The Divine Comedy:
I saw the Master there of those who know,
Amid the philosophic family,
By all admired, and by all reverenced;
There Plato too I saw, and Socrates,
Who stood beside him closer than the rest.
and during the Middle Ages, Aristotle was known as „The Philosopher” because everyone was aware of his knowledge and of his intellectual power.
Aristotle considered the most important thing in life to be a reason – the best way to live our life was, from his point of view, to be rational.
Aristotle was really keen on being fair in life and he dedicated a lot of time to write about justice. In one of his writings, he mentions how he thinks justice should be handled and I believe he makes a really good point in doing so.
He thinks that the political power should be unevenly divided on the criteria of merit, therefore, the best at his subject will win the position or the place he strives for.
For example, if we have a nice, new and free flute that we want to give to somebody and we have rich and poor candidates from which we have talented rich candidates and unskilled rich candidates, talented poor candidates, and unskilled poor candidates. Who should we give the flute to? Aristotle thought that we should give it to the most talented candidate, completely ignoring the fact that he or she might be rich or poor. This is proof that he relied on justice above everything else.
During our times, rich people definitely have the upper hand, not that they can pay to lie that they are good at something (although we do see different politicians being exposed for plagiarism), but even more, they are considered better just because of their wealth, which is so not a criterion for knowing the quality of the person behind the money, right?
Aristotle, when talking about justice, thinks that we should apply this way of thinking to politics too. Therefore, ignoring rich and poor politicians, we should choose the most skillful politician to take the role. Indeed, there needs to be set a list of qualities that a good politician should have and from there to start analyzing, such as being a good public speaker. justice
I believe that Aristotle’s concept has its ups and downs, but a flaw I think would be the lack of the person that should decide who the best person for that role is and if that person is chosen, shouldn’t he or she be the best from the best? And for that, aren’t we supposed to have other people to judge them? And this way we can’t stop thinking for people to choose other people, leaving the highest seat free? Who is supposed to decide it all?
If you’re interested in more articles about philosophy, check out our magazine: https://www.pov21.com/epicurus-5-astonishing-ideas-you-need/
