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
Our duties are in general measured by our social relationships. He is a father. One is called upon to take care of him, to give way to him in all things, to submit when he reviles or strikes you. “But he is a bad father.” Did nature, then, bring you into relationship with a good father? No, but simply with a father. “My brother does me wrong.” Very well, then, maintain the relation that you have toward him; and do not consider what he is doing, but what you will have to do, if your moral purpose is to be in harmony with nature. For no one will harm you without your consent; you will have been harmed only when you think you are harmed. In this way, therefore, you will discover what duty to expect of your neighbour, your citizen, your commanding officer, if you acquire the habit of looking at your social relations with them.
— Epictetus, Handbook 30
Reflection
Epictetus brings justice, dikaiosyne, down to the ground: your duties are measured by your actual relationships, not ideal ones. You did not choose your father, your sibling, your neighbor. You got the ones you got. A bad father is still a father; a wronging brother is still your brother. What you owe them is not conditioned on whether they deserve it by some abstract standard. This is not passivity; Epictetus is clear that no one can truly harm you without your consent in the deepest sense. But the question of your own conduct is separate from the question of theirs. You look at what your role requires, not what their behavior excuses. This is justice as a practice within imperfect, real relationships.
Go deeper
Which specific relationship in your life are you currently using the other person's failings as a reason to reduce or withhold your own fair conduct, and what would it look like to separate your duty from their behavior?
Practice
Name the Relationship, Not the Person
Pick one difficult relationship in your life right now. For five minutes, write only about the role, not the person: what does this relationship (parent, colleague, friend, neighbor) genuinely ask of you at its best? Set aside what this particular person has done. You are trying to see the role clearly. You do not have to act on this today; just see it.