Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Objection 1: It would seem that justice is about the passions. For the Philosopher says (Ethic. ii, 3) that "moral virtue is about pleasure and pain." Now pleasure or delight, and pain are passions, as stated above when we were treating of the passions. Therefore justice, being a moral virtue, is about the passions.

Objection 2: Further, justice is the means of rectifying a man's operations in relation to another man. Now such like operations cannot be rectified unless the passions be rectified, because it is owing to disorder of the passions that there is disorder in the aforesaid operations: thus sexual lust leads to adultery, and overmuch love of money leads to theft. Therefore justice must needs be about the passions.

Objection 3: Further, even as particular justice is towards another person so is legal justice. Now legal justice is about the passions, else it would not extend to all the virtues, some of which are evidently about the passions. Therefore justice is about the passions.

On the contrary, The Philosopher says (Ethic. v, 1) that justice is about operations.

I answer that, The true answer to this question may be gathered from a twofold source. First from the subject of justice, i.e. from the will, whose movements or acts are not passions, as stated above (1.2, Question 22, Article 3; 1.2, Question 59, Article 4), for it is only the sensitive appetite whose movements are called passions. Hence justice is not about the passions, as are temperance and fortitude, which are in the irascible and concupiscible parts. Secondly, on he part of the matter, because justice is about man's relations with another, and we are not directed immediately to another by the internal passions. Therefore justice is not about the passions.

Reply to Objection 1: Not every moral virtue is about pleasure and pain as its proper matter, since fortitude is about fear and daring: but every moral virtue is directed to pleasure and pain, as to ends to be acquired, for, as the Philosopher says (Ethic. vii, 11), "pleasure and pain are the principal end in respect of which we say that this is an evil, and that a good": and in this way too they belong to justice, since "a man is not just unless he rejoice in just actions" (Ethic. i, 8).

Reply to Objection 2: External operations are as it were between external things, which are their matter, and internal passions, which are their origin. Now it happens sometimes that there is a defect in one of these, without there being a defect in the other. Thus a man may steal another's property, not through the desire to have the thing, but through the will to hurt the man; or vice versa, a man may covet another's property without wishing to steal it. Accordingly the directing of operations in so far as they tend towards external things, belongs to justice, but in so far as they arise from the passions, it belongs to the other moral virtues which are about the passions. Hence justice hinders theft of another's property, in so far as stealing is contrary to the, equality that should be maintained in external things, while liberality hinders it as resulting from an immoderate desire for wealth. Since, however, external operations take their species, not from the internal passions but from external things as being their objects, it follows that, external operations are essentially the matter of justice rather than of the other moral virtues.

Reply to Objection 3: The common good is the end of each individual member of a community, just as the good of the whole is the end of each part. On the other hand the good of one individual is not the end of another individual: wherefore legal justice which is directed to the common good, is more capable of extending to the internal passions whereby man is disposed in some way or other in himself, than particular justice which is directed to the good of another individual: although legal justice extends chiefly to other virtues in the point of their external operations, in so far, to wit, as "the law commands us to perform the actions of a courageous person . . . the actions of a temperate person . . . and the actions of a gentle person" (Ethic. v, 5).

Articulus 9

Argumentum 1

Ad nonum sic proceditur. Videtur quod iustitia sit circa passiones.

Dicit enim philosophus, in II ethic., quod circa voluptates et tristitias est moralis virtus.

Voluptas autem, idest delectatio, et tristitia sunt passiones quaedam; ut supra habitum est, cum de passionibus ageretur.

Ergo iustitia, cum sit virtus moralis, erit circa passiones.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, per iustitiam rectificantur operationes quae sunt ad alterum. Sed operationes huiusmodi rectificari non possunt nisi passiones sint rectificatae, quia ex inordinatione passionum provenit inordinatio in praedictis operationibus; propter concupiscentiam enim venereorum proceditur ad adulterium, et propter superfluum amorem pecuniae proceditur ad furtum.

Ergo oportet quod iustitia sit circa passiones.

Argumentum 3

Praeterea, sicut iustitia particularis est ad alterum, ita etiam et iustitia legalis. Sed iustitia legalis est circa passiones, alioquin non se extenderet ad omnes virtutes, quarum quaedam manifeste sunt circa passiones.

Ergo iustitia est circa passiones.

Sed Contra

Sed contra est quod philosophus dicit, in V ethic., quod est circa operationes.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum quod huius quaestionis veritas ex duobus apparet. Primo quidem, ex ipso subiecto iustitiae, quod est voluntas cuius motus vel actus non sunt passiones, ut supra habitum est; sed solum motus appetitus sensitivi passiones dicuntur. Et ideo iustitia non est circa passiones, sicut temperantia et fortitudo, quae sunt irascibilis et concupiscibilis, sunt circa passiones. Alio modo, ex parte materiae.

Quia iustitia est circa ea quae sunt ad alterum. Non autem per passiones interiores immediate ad alterum ordinamur.

Et ideo iustitia circa passiones non est.

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod non quaelibet virtus moralis est circa voluptates et tristitias sicut circa materiam, nam fortitudo est circa timores et audacias. Sed omnis virtus moralis ordinatur ad delectationem et tristitiam sicut ad quosdam fines consequentes, quia, ut philosophus dicit, in VII ethic., delectatio et tristitia est finis principalis, ad quem respicientes unumquodque hoc quidem malum, hoc quidem bonum dicimus.

Et hoc modo etiam pertinent ad iustitiam, quia non est iustus qui non gaudet iustis operationibus, ut dicitur in I ethic..

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod operationes exteriores mediae sunt quodammodo inter res exteriores, quae sunt earum materia, et inter passiones interiores, quae sunt earum principia. Contingit autem quandoque esse defectum in uno eorum sine hoc quod sit defectus in alio, sicut si aliquis surripiat rem alterius non cupiditate habendi, sed voluntate nocendi; vel e converso si aliquis alterius rem concupiscat, quam tamen surripere non velit.

Rectificatio ergo operationum secundum quod ad exteriora terminantur, pertinet ad iustitiam, sed rectificatio earum secundum quod a passionibus oriuntur, pertinet ad alias virtutes morales, quae sunt circa passiones. Unde surreptionem alienae rei iustitia impedit inquantum est contra aequalitatem in exterioribus constituendam, liberalitas vero inquantum procedit ab immoderata concupiscentia divitiarum. Sed quia operationes exteriores non habent speciem ab interioribus passionibus, sed magis a rebus exterioribus, sicut ex obiectis; ideo, per se loquendo, operationes exteriores magis sunt materia iustitiae quam aliarum virtutum Moralium.

Ad 3

Ad tertium dicendum quod bonum commune est finis singularum personarum in communitate existentium, sicut bonum totius finis est cuiuslibet partium. Bonum autem unius personae singularis non est finis alterius. Et ideo iustitia legalis, quae ordinatur ad bonum commune, magis se potest extendere ad interiores passiones, quibus homo aliqualiter disponitur in seipso, quam iustitia particularis, quae ordinatur ad bonum alterius singularis personae. Quamvis iustitia legalis principalius se extendat ad alias virtutes quantum ad exteriores operationes earum, inquantum scilicet praecipit lex fortis opera facere, et quae temperati, et quae mansueti, ut dicitur in V ethic..