Justice, Theories of

The question “What is justice?” is the first problem addressed by Plato's Republic. It has remained a central question in all moral, legal, and political thought. There are narrow and broad uses of the terms just and justice. In its narrowest sense, justice is close to lawfulness, and a just act is a legal one, meaning primarily that it is not illegal. Another narrow use is procedural, with the sense that certain decisionmaking procedures deliver a product that a state calls justice.

In its broader senses, which are of the greatest interest to philosophers and other theorists, justice is thought of as an attribute either of acts, including transactions and decisions; of conditions, including rules and laws; or of entities, including persons, gods, societies, and states.

Aristotle ...