Aristotle writes about all of the important issues of knowledge and method in his time, and one of the important issues he addressed in several different contexts was justice. This topic is developed in his ethical writings and his political writings, as well as in his writings on rhetoric, since that subject was intimately connected with developing and disseminating the logic of political thought. In his analysis of the issue of justice, Aristotle considers the meaning of virtue and the qualities which identify the living of the good life. In terms of this issue, Aristotle relied on a particular doctrine, the doctrine of the mean.
Aristotle believes that every art and inquiry is aimed at some good, that everything has as its goal some good. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle identifies political science as the discipline that has as its goal the study of what is good for mankind. Ethics are actually a branch of political science, and personal ethical science is at one level while political ethical science is at a higher level of inquiry. For Aristotle, statecraft holds a primary position because it employs all the other sciences. It must therefore embrace as its aims the aims of all the others. The purpose of political science is to secure the good. This is on a higher level for the state than it is for the individual because while the securing of the good for the individual is itself a good, the securing of the good for an entire nation of people is of a higher order (Wheelwright 157-159).
The doctrine of the mean is developed in Aristotle's discussion of excellence of character both as to the meaning of excellence and as to how to achieve excellence, for Aristotle is always practical in his development of such ideas. That is, he is interested in such matters not in a theoretical sense but in terms of the ability to effect action and to describe actions taken by human beings. Excellence for Aristotle emerges from moti...