NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

It would be tempting to use "justice" sad Aristotle's virtues most important to the city. But, justice is such an impossible subject to define and come to grips with. God knows, Plato and Socrates and their debating fellows attempted to create a meaning that would withstand all opposition. Instead, it seems that the idea of "friendship" is really the most important. Friendship is a very human characteristic. It is one thing over which ever human has some sort of control. Good friends make the difference between survival and living, one can easily surmise. Justice is usually an imposition. States and rulers create justice (or injustice, for that matter). There are no laws or ethical limitations to friendship.

Aristotle makes the choice even easier: "a'justice' and 'injustice' seem to be ambiguous termsa" (p. 376). He then spends nearly the entire Book V trying to go beyond what Plato (in "The Republic", among other works) has tried to establish as a virtue. In this book, it seems, Aristotle is more concerned about separating injustice from justice, the unjust man from the virtuous, just one, to really provide a student the opportunity to decide that justice is the virtue without which the city could not survive. There is, of course, some truth to that, assuming the city is an establishment, and not merely a community of individuals and separate citizens.

The rationale for choosing "friendship" as the virtue which is most important to life i

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(p. 407) And isn't that the basis for life in the city- goodwill among men- something that goes well beyond the Biblical injunction of "Peace on Earth" (and this was millennia prior to the birth of Jesus). There is one difference, of course, between the city in Aristotle's time and the cities of today. While there was a tremendous gulf between the rulers and the ruled, those who ruled were considered wise, not merely of a high station, and the ruled obeyed because they felt the laws and statues were god-inspired. If justice was a virtue then, justice could exist only when friends banded together to prevent or eradicate injustice. Today, the idea of friendship sometimes means merely mutual protection: inner-city gangs are "friends", but in a sense that does not equate with justice. If we want to improve the life in our cities, then we should concentrate on Aristotle's delineation of "goodwill"- something that is limited to charity giving these days. Friendship may sometimes be temporary. Aristotle claims this happens when the goals of a friendship are met, and then the friendship may be dissolved. In our time (and no doubt in his) politicians were and are "friends" until after election. Yet, the very basis for any sort

Category: Philosophy - N