What is ‘just’ is the same in all states: the advantage of the established regime.
ταῖς πόλεσιν ταὐτὸν εἶναι δίκαιον, τὸ τῆς καθεστηκυίας ἀρχῆς συμφέρον
Tag: Justice
Plato, Republic 1.133d
Plato, Republic 1.334 a
Euripides, fr. 760
Plutarch, Comparison of Alcibiades and Coriolanus, 1.4
It is shameful to flatter the people to gain power; but to rule through fear, depravity and oppression is not merely shameful, it is unjust.
αἰσχρὸν μὲν γὰρ τὸ κολακεύειν δῆμον ἐπὶ τῷ δύνασθαι, τὸ δ᾽ ἰσχύειν ἐκ τοῦ φοβερὸν εἶναι καὶ κακοῦν καὶ πιέζειν πρὸς τῷ αἰσχρῷ καὶ ἄδικόν ἐστιν.
Alcibiades, you might know. But Coriolanus is not exactly a household name (Unless, say, that house is William Shakespeare’s)
Hesiod, Works and Days, 265
“The man who does evil against another harms himself.”
οἷ αὐτῷ κακὰ τεύχει ἀνὴρ ἄλλῳ κακὰ τεύχων,
Perhaps (Plato’s) Socrates was thinking of this when he said “doing wrong is worse than suffering it“.
Euripides, Electra 583-4
It is right to believe in the gods no longer if injustice will surpass what is just
ἢ χρὴ μηκέθ᾽ ἡγεῖσθαι θεούς,
εἰ τἄδικ᾽ ἔσται τῆς δίκης ὑπέρτερα.
Electra, daughter of Agamemnon, certainly had reasons to be confused by justice