The Nicomachean Ethics — trans. F. H. Peters (1881)

that the terms of the proportion are four in number.

That which is just, then, requires that there be 10 four terms at least, and that the ratio between the two pairs be the same, i.e. that the persons stand to one another in the same ratio as the things.

Let us say, then, - = -, or alternando - - --,. 11

0 a c a

The sums of these new pairs then [a + c, b -{- d]

will stand to one another in the original ratio ra c-i

But these are the pairs which the distribution joins together ; J and if the things be assigned in this manner, the distribution is just.

* Counting all free men as equals entitled to equal shares. a c i a X Assigning or joining certain quantities of goods (c and d) to certain persons (a and h).

p. 147

12 This joining, then, of a to c and of 6 to <Z is that which is just in distribution; and that which is just in this sense is a mean between that which violates the proportion on this side and on that ; for that which is proportionate is a mean quantity, and that which is just is, as we said, proportionate.

13 This proportion is called by the mathematicians a geometrical proportion ; for it is when four terms are in geometrical proportion that the sum [of the first and third] is to the sum [of the second and fourth] in the original ratio [of the first to the second or the third to the fourth].

14 But this proportion [as applied in justice] cannot be a continuous proportion ; for one term cannot represent both a person and a thing.

That which is just, then, in this sense is that which is proportionate; but that which is unjust is that which is disproportionate. In the latter case one quantity becomes more or too much, the other less or too little. And this we see in practice ; for he who wrongs another gets too much, and he who is wronged gets too little of the good in

15 question : but of the evil conversely ; for the lesser evil stands in the place of good when compared

16 with the greater evil : for the lesser evil is more desirable than the greater, but that which is desirable is good, and that which is more desirable is a greater good.

1 4. This then is one form of that which is just qfaat (in the limited sense) ; the other form of it is that ineorrectvm, which is just in the way of redress, the sphere oiqfantkp. 148 meticai which is private transactions, whether voluntary or proportion. , involuntary.

This differs in kind from the former.

For that which is just in the distribution of the 2 common stock of good things is always in accordance with the proportion above specified (just as, when any common fund is divided, the sums which the several participants take must bear the same ratio to one another as the sums they have put in), and that which is unjust in the corresponding sense violates this proportion.

But that which is just in private transactions * is 3 indeed fair or equal in some sort, and that which is unjust is unfair or unequal ; but the proportion to be observed here is not a geometrical proportion as above, but an arithmetical one.

For it makes no difference whether a good man defrauds a bad one, or a bad man a good one, nor whether a man who commits an adultery be a good or a bad man ; the law looks only to the difference created by the injury, treating the parties themselves as equal, and only asking whether the one has done, and the other suffered, injury or damage.

That which is unjust, then, is here something 4 unequal [or unfair] which the judge tries to make equal [or fair]. For even when one party is struck and the other strikes, or one kills and the other is killed, that which is suffered and that which is done

* In the way of redress, as given by the law-courts : later on (cap. 5) he gives as an after-thought the kind of justice which ought to regulate buying and selling, etc. ; but the law only enforces these contracts and does not regulate them (4, 13) .

4, 2-7.] JusncK 149 may be said to be unequally or unfairly divided ; the judge then tries to restore equality by the penalty or loss which he inflicts upon the offender, subtracting it from his gain.