Justice and Eudaimonia in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
This paper examines Aristotle's treatment of justice, virtue, and happiness (eudaimonia) in the Nicomachean Ethics. It traces Aristotle's argument that justice is the highest moral virtue, requiring all other virtues, while distinguishing between natural justice — universal and unchanging — and legal justice, which varies by society. The paper also explores Aristotle's hierarchy of virtues, in which intellectual virtues surpass moral ones, and his conclusion that a life of philosophical contemplation yields the greatest eudaimonia. A life devoted to politics and justice is presented as the next best path, necessary for maintaining the conditions under which philosophical life can flourish.
- Introduction: Happiness and Virtue in the Nicomachean Ethics: Aristotle links eudaimonia to virtuous activity of the soul
- Justice as the Highest Moral Virtue: Justice unifies all other virtues in Aristotle's ethics
- Natural Justice and Legal Justice: Aristotle distinguishes universal natural justice from variable legal justice
- Justice, Politics, and the City-State: Politics directs all sciences toward the common human good
- Intellectual Virtues versus Moral Virtues: Intellectual virtues ranked above moral virtues including justice
- Conclusion: The Philosophical Life and the Role of Justice: Philosophical contemplation yields greater eudaimonia than political life
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What makes this paper effective
- It anchors every major claim in direct quotations from the Nicomachean Ethics, giving the analysis textual authority and preventing unsupported assertion.
- It moves logically from defining happiness and virtue, to categorizing justice, to distinguishing moral from intellectual virtues — building toward a coherent conclusion about the hierarchy of the good life.
- It maintains a clear through-line: every section returns to the central question of how justice relates to eudaimonia, keeping the argument focused despite covering several distinct Aristotelian concepts.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates sustained close reading of a primary philosophical text. Rather than paraphrasing Aristotle in general terms, the author integrates specific passages from identified books of the Nicomachean Ethics and interprets them in relation to the paper's central thesis. This technique — quoting, attributing, and then analyzing — is the foundation of philosophical essay writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by introducing eudaimonia and the role of virtue, then narrows to Aristotle's concept of justice (dikaiosune) in Book V. It distinguishes natural from legal justice, examines justice in relation to friendship and politics, and then broadens to the moral-versus-intellectual virtue hierarchy. The conclusion synthesizes these threads, restating Aristotle's ranking of the philosophical life above the political life while acknowledging the necessity of the latter.
Introduction: Happiness and Virtue in the Nicomachean Ethics
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle's attempts to understand human nature ultimately lead him to an understanding of justice. He attempts to understand how humans can reach true happiness, delving deeply into the definitions of true happiness (eudaimonia) and virtue, and outlining how virtue and happiness are intertwined. The Nicomachean Ethics deals with metaphysics and focuses on ideas such as soul, happiness, virtue, and friendship. Aristotle concludes that happiness ultimately derives from activities of the soul that are in accordance with virtue. As he states, "happiness is an activity of soul in accordance with perfect virtue" (Book I).
Aristotle argues that the life that leads to the greatest happiness is a life of philosophical contemplation. However, he acknowledges that in order to achieve this life, some members of a city-state must live a life of politics, adhering to the principles of justice — the highest of the virtues. Ultimately, Aristotle argues that a life devoted to virtues is second only to a life devoted to philosophical reflection in achieving eudaimonia.
Justice as the Highest Moral Virtue
In Book V of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle delves into a discussion of dikaiosune (justice). He notes that justice is extremely important in a society of free and equal people. He also makes a clear distinction between justice and ethics: justice consists of following the rules, while ethics involves doing the right and moral thing in cases where justice may lead to the wrong result.
To Aristotle, justice is the ultimate virtue, as it requires having all other virtues and serves to unify and order them. The other virtues he identifies include friendliness, temperance, truthfulness, wit, courage, generosity, magnanimity, magnificence, right ambition, and good temper. Aristotle states of justice: "all men mean by justice that kind of state of character which makes people disposed to do what is just and makes them act justly and wish for what is just; and similarly by injustice that state which makes them act unjustly and wish for what is unjust" (Book V).
Natural Justice and Legal Justice
Aristotle defines two types of justice: natural justice and legal justice. Natural justice is the same across time and countries. From observation, Aristotle notes that this type of justice can be difficult to perceive clearly. As a result, different definitions of justice are held by different regimes and governments, despite their good intentions. Natural justice is unchanging in principle. In differentiating the two types of justice, Aristotle notes: "Of political justice part is natural, part legal, natural, that which everywhere has the same force and does not exist by people's thinking this or that; legal, that which is originally indifferent, but when it has been laid down is not indifferent" (Book V).
According to Aristotle, legal justice is simply the law, and is often at odds with natural justice. In the city-state, legal and natural justice are necessarily intertwined in the laws of the city. Unlike natural justice, which is unchanging in principle, legal justice can change often according to the time and needs of society. As Aristotle notes, "the things which are just not by nature but by human enactment are not everywhere the same, since constitutions also are not the same, though there is but one which is everywhere by nature the best" (Book V).
Interestingly, Aristotle also connects justice to friendship. He observes: "when men are friends they have no need of justice, while when they are just they need friendship as well, and the truest form of justice is thought to be a friendly quality" (Book VII).
Conclusion: The Philosophical Life and the Role of Justice
In conclusion, the concept of justice is central to Aristotle's influential Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle carefully attempts to come to an understanding of human nature and how humans can attain their greatest happiness (eudaimonia). It is only through an understanding of virtues like justice that Aristotle arrives at his ultimate conclusion: that the life leading to the most happiness is a life of philosophical contemplation, grounded in human intellectual virtues.
However, he notes that in order for citizens of a city-state to achieve their highest eudaimonia, some citizens must devote their lives to politics. Aristotle argues that a life of politics most closely achieves eudaimonia by adhering to the principles of justice, the highest of the moral virtues. As such, a life dedicated to politics and the virtue of justice is only surpassed by a life devoted to philosophical reflection.
Works Cited
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics: Edited with a Commentary by G. Ramsauer. New York: Garland, 1987.
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