Political Theory Social Sciences Essay Research Paper

Justice as Viewed by Famous Philosophers Student’s Name
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Political Theory
Justice has often been identified as one of the concepts that have been essential in the history of philosophy. Both Plato and Aristotle identified justice as a virtue that sought to achieve goodness and enhance people’s willingness to obey laws. According to Ferrara (393), justice is one of the prerequisites that promotes peace and harmony in societies. Most philosophers often identified justice as a virtue that is meant to achieve fairness and reasonableness in societies. Nevertheless, each philosopher from Plato, Aristotle, to Augustine had a unique perspective on justice.
Plato Views on Justice
Plato was one of the philosophers who identified justice as one of the essential societal concepts. Plato's concept of justice tends to cover all human conducts and its impacts on others. Notably, Plato considered justice to be a true principle of social life. Plato describes polity has having almost identical structures to an individual (Ferrara 393). According to Plato, a society can only be just if it is dominated by the white who are, in turn, dominated by their rational souls. He argues that human beings should perform duties assigned to them. This is the only way to achieve harmony, which subsequently leads to justice. In essence, Plato defines justice into two aspects, with the first one being willing to achieve assigned duties while the second aspect describes justice as harmony (Ferrara 394). These are the two analogies in which Plato uses to make people understand his views about justice. As such, Plato describes justice as a virtue that has both individual and social aspects. Plato argued that justice was more of a moral element than legal content. In his assessment, Plato explains justice as the virtue that ensures all virtues are harmonious with each other.
Aristotle Views on Justice
On his part, Aristotle believed that justice was one of the virtues that significantly influenced the wor...