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

actions in which the law allows free play ; but when 14 neither gets more or less, but both parties get, by free exchange,* the very same amount with which they started, then they allow that they have their own, and are neither losers nor gainers. That which is just, then, in these voluntary transactions is a mean between a gain and a loss, and consists in having after the transaction an amount equal to that which you had before it. Simple re- 5- Somc pcoplc, indeed, go so far as to think that 1

Z/idenncaz simple Tcquital is just. And so the Pythagoreans Jmlhu^pro- used to tcach ; for their definition of what is just was rTqiM^Z simply that what a man has done to another should what is just , , i i • in exchange ; DC dOnC tO Jum.

Effected by But tliis simplc requital does not correspond either 2 money. We with that which is just in distribution or with that can 71 ow give ,.,.. 'ii /> i /jt t ii • a general which IS lust m the way 01 redress (though this 3 definition of .

justice (2). certainly is what people mean to express m the Rhadamanthine rule —

" To suffer that whioh thou hast done is just ") ;

for in many cases it is quite different. For instance, 4 if an officer strike a man, he ought not to be struck in return; and if a man strike an officer, he ought not merely to be struck, but to be punished.

Further, it makes a great difference whether what 5 was done to the other was done with his consent or against it.

But it is true that, in the interchange of services, 6

* avrd, almost = ra ahra, " the very amount with which they started;" and Si' aiirwv = iK Trjs eKovcriov aWayyis, by their own will : neither party is defrauded secretly or openly, but each believes that what ho gives is worth precisely what he takes : the next chapter gives the rule for determining this worth.

4, 14-5, 8.] JUSTICE. 153

this is the rule of justice that holds society together, \"iz. requital — but proportionate requital, and not simple repayment of equals for equals. For the very existence of a state depends upon propoi-tionate return.

If we have suffered e\al, we seek to return it; if not, if men cannot requite an injury, we count their condition slavish.* And again, if we have received good, we seek to repay it: for otherwise there is no exchange of services ; but it is by this exchange that we are bound together in society.

7 This is the reason why we set up a temple of the graces [charities, ^^apirag] in sight of all men, to remind them to repay that which they receive; for (7/ this is the special characteristic of charity or grace. •

8 We ought to return the good offices of those who have been gracious to us, and then again to take the lead in good offices towards them.

But proportionate interchange is brought about by " cross conjunction."

For instance, let A stand for a builder, B for a shoemaker, C for a house, D for shoes.f

• They are not really citizens, members of a state.

t We had before (3, 11, 12) as the mle of distribntive justice

4 P g = — , and the distribation was expressed by the "joining " (av^ev^ts)

of the opposite or corresponding symbols, A and C, B and D. Here we have the same two pairs of symbols, ranged opposite to each other as before ; bnt the exchange will be expressed by joining A to D and B to C, i.e. by •' cross conjunction " or by drawing diagonal lines (^ Karh Sidfifrpov av^ev^is) thus :

A . . B

C. ' " . D

p. 154

The builder then must take some of the shoemaker's work, and give him his own work in exchange.

Now, the desired result will be brought about if requital take place after proportionate equality has first been established.*

If this be not done, there is no equality, and intercourse becomes impossible ; for there is no reason why the work' of the one should not be worth more than the work of the other. Their work, then, must be brought to an equality [or appraised by a common standard of value].

This is no less true of the other arts and pro- 9 fessions [besides building and shoemaking] ; for they could not exist if that which the patient [client or consumer] receives did not correspond in quantity and quality with that which the agent [artist or producer] does or produces, f