Justice is one of the four cardinal virtues in classical European philosophy and Roman Catholicism. It is the moderation between selfishness and selflessness. The just man renders to each and all what is due to them, which are their moral and legal rights to do, possess, or exact something. This is equal insofar as each one receives what he is entitled to, but may be unequal insofar as different people may have different rights: two children have different rights from a certain adult if that adult is the parent of one of them and not of the other. It is closely related, in Christianity, to the practice of charity, because it regulates the relationships with others. It is a cardinal virtue, which is to say "pivotal" because it regulates all such relationships, and is sometimes deemed the most important of the cardinal virtues.
External links
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Justice as a Virtue
- Summa Theologica "Second Part of the Second Part" See Questions 57-122
- Catholic Encyclopedia "Justice"
