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Book 3
Oct 28, 2016 15:45:52 GMT
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Post by Dominique Martin on Oct 28, 2016 15:45:52 GMT
So what I am gathering from this is that justice is not a natural law. It is relative. What one society considers to be just can be completely different from what another society believes it to be. So who's to say what is or is not just? Philus pretty much says that no matter what decision you make, believing it to be unjust or just, you will be judged. "If he does so, he is a worldly wiseman, but not the less a scoundrel; if he does not, he is admirably just, but a great blockhead." Loelius refutes this by saying that there is a true law created and enforced by God. I gather that this law is our natural strife for virtue. That we should not so much focus on what what society says is just or unjust, but on the true law and living virtuously. I think that's what they were getting at anyways.
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artsykat
Junior Member
Hello, I'm Kateri, nice to meet you~!
Posts: 51
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Book 3
Oct 28, 2016 21:17:44 GMT
Post by artsykat on Oct 28, 2016 21:17:44 GMT
I think that pretty much sums it up . At the time, every independent nation had it's own set of laws and notions of what justice is. If you take God out of the picture, one really needs to ask, "what is justice?" Then they come up with their own definition of what they think it is. The fact is that God is the one who enforces and defines justice, for He is our King, our Ruler, and well, our God. In that sense, then I think that justice is a natural law, because it isn't relative to you or to me. We can't decide or define what is just according to how we feel, that is left up to God. If we focus on the true law, well first, what is the true law? It's God's law. What society thinks or deems as just are irrelevant, because it's all false, if it isn't following God's justice, that is.
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Book 3
Oct 29, 2016 13:14:26 GMT
Post by Christopher Martin on Oct 29, 2016 13:14:26 GMT
It's one of the fascinating things of philosophical/political treatises that they often ask the question: is it better to be just or is it better to be enforce one's will?
Ultimately, their musings will help them to discover the natural law: that indeed, it is better to be just than to be enforce one's will, because of man's infinitude: it is important to the health of one's soul to always be just and to be virtuous, no matter the cost. Amazing that pagans could arrive at conclusions so near to the principles of Christianity!
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