Justice (Dikaiosyne)
This week's concept is Justice, known in Greek as dikaiosyne (say it: dih-KAY-oh-soo-nay), which simply means giving others what they are genuinely owed and refusing to take from them what is not yours to take. The Stoics placed it among the four cardinal virtues, and they considered it the most social of the four: it is the one virtue that faces outward, toward other people, toward the community, toward the world. By the end of this week you will understand not just what justice means in the abstract, but how it shows up in the small, concrete choices you make every single day with the people around you.
Passage
There are some also who, either from zeal in attending to their own business or through some sort of aversion to their fellow-men, claim that they are occupied solely with their own affairs, without seeming to themselves to be doing anyone any injury. But while they steer clear of the one kind of injustice, they fall into the other: they are traitors to social life, for they contribute to it none of their interest, none of their effort, none of their means. Now since we have set forth the two kinds of injustice and assigned the motives that lead to each, and since we have previously established the principles by which justice is constituted, we shall be in a position easily to decide what our duty on each occasion is, unless we are extremely self-centred; for indeed it is not an easy matter to be really concerned with other people's affairs;
— Cicero, On Duties 1.29
Reflection
Yesterday we saw that actively defrauding someone breaks the bonds of society. Today Cicero names a subtler failure: simply opting out. He calls it a second kind of injustice, the injustice of the bystander who minds their own business so carefully that they contribute nothing to anyone else. This matters because justice, dikaiosyne, is not only about what you refrain from doing; it is also about what you bring. If you withhold your effort, your attention, or your means from the common life you share with others, you are still, in Cicero's view, a traitor to that life. Justice has a passive face and an active face, and both count.
Go deeper
Where in your life right now are you 'steering clear of injustice' by simply doing nothing, and what specifically would it look like to actually show up instead?
Practice
Notice the Withdrawal
Today, catch yourself once when you pull back from an interaction or a responsibility with the quiet thought 'it's not my problem.' Pause there for sixty seconds and ask: is this genuine discretion, or is it the second kind of injustice Cicero describes? You do not have to act differently; just notice the choice with clear eyes.