In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics we are treated to the great philosopher’s ideas on justice, both natural and legal forms of justice. In Nichomachean Ethics, we see that Aristotle views happiness as the highest goal of life. However, he is not talking about the kind of happiness that is associated with material objects and pursuits such as pleasure, fame, and wealth. These do not afford the individual the highest form of happiness, one that may be achieved only through the contemplation of philosophy. This is because man’s unique feature and the characteristic that distinguishes him from all other animals is his virtue of ration. Aristotle believes the contemplation of philosophic truth is crucial to achieving the highest form of happiness because it exercises man’s ration.
When it comes to justice, the good of the individual is akin to the good of the city-state. Human good is really a political concern in Aristotle. In Nicomachean Ethics we see that self-sufficient contemplation of truth by the individual constitutes the ideal good life, but we also see that man is a political animal in nature who needs friendship and other-directed virtues like courage, generosity and justice if he is to achieve well-being. Justice in nature was teleological to Aristotle. A thing’s just nature was determined by its successful operation in achieving its goal “Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim” (Book I.i).
Thus, justice for an acorn is to develop into an oak. All of its capacities are designed for this. Natural justice to humans was to achieve well-being by living a life of a certain kind, one of rational activity since the individual human’s nature is designed to achieve this “goal.” Justice occurs in nature when the goal is achieve for which the thing’s...