What Is Justice? Aristotle on the Just Person, Corporation, and State (Nicomachean Ethics, Book V)

In this episode of Resiliency Rounds, Aneesh and Jeremy continue Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (Book V) on justice, using a question-driven format to ask what it means to be a just person, corporation, and state. They distinguish constitutional justice—how a state distributes basic goods like health, education, and security—from justice in voluntary exchanges between individuals, and discuss the difficulty of justice in criminal contexts where loss can’t be fully restored. They argue that following the law is a low bar and explore Aristotle’s view that being just is a matter of character: choosing the right acts voluntarily, knowingly, and not for gain, developed through a repeated thought–action–reflection cycle. They apply this to corporate power (e.g., opioids, social media harms, product negligence) and turn inward to “self-justice,” drawing on Plato’s inner republic—reason governing honor and appetites—and end by asking who runs one’s inner republic.

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