Justice consists in "doing that which is proper to each one," on the basis that one acts so that each can perform better a task different from that of the other, for the good of all. Justice allows other virtues "to grow and to be preserved." As if to say: if the merchant does not improvise himself as a warrior and the warrior does not try to do the merchant's work, but each one "does his own job," it is better for each and for all.
Correlation:
The Platonic concept of justice is found almost identically in Aristotle and, in general, in the ancient world, for example, in the Roman age, in Stoic philosophy and Roman law. The
Corpus Iuris Civilis edited by Justinian in the 6th century A.D. recites:
Iustitia est suum cuique tribuere, neminem laedere, honeste vivere, which means: justice is to attribute to each his own, to harm no one, to live honestly.
And here I connect myself to the concept of community, according to my point of view:A healthy community is a community that, despite the divergences that are proper to it, accepts them and uses them as a means to build personal and collective growth.A healthy community is not a community where one rejects an idea a priori, but where one discusses it, in a civilized manner, seeking a constructive synthesis that can do the "best" for all.
[Translation of the Cicero text follows]
[11] Every species of living creature has been granted by nature to protect itself, its life and body, to decline those things which appear likely to be harmful, and to seek and prepare all things which are necessary for living, such as pasture, shelters, and other things of the same kind. It is likewise common to all living creatures the appetite for connection for the sake of procreating and a certain care for those which have been procreated. But between man and beast this is the greatest difference: that the latter, only so far as it is moved by sense, adapts itself to that alone which is present and which is at hand, sensing very little what is past or future. Man, however, because he is a participant of reason, through which he discerns consequences, sees the causes of things and does not ignore their progressions and, as it were, their antecedents, compares similarities, and joins and connects future things to present ones, easily sees the entire course of life and prepares the necessary things for living it.
[12] The same nature, by the force of reason, reconciles man to man and engenders for the society of speech and of life, and generates primarily a certain special love towards those who have been procreated, and impels him to want that gatherings and celebrations of men both exist and be frequented by him, and for these causes, he is eager to prepare those things which may supply for culture and for livelihood, and not for himself alone, but for his spouse, children, and the others whom he ought to hold dear and protect; which care also rouses the spirits and makes them greater for performing the task.
[13] And primarily man's own is the inquiry and investigation of the true. Therefore, when we are free from necessary businesses and cares, then we long to see, to hear, to learn something, and we consider the knowledge of things either hidden or admirable as necessary for living happily. From which it is understood that what is true, simple, and sincere, that is most suitable to the nature of man. To this desire of seeing the truth is joined a certain appetite for leadership, so that a spirit well-informed by nature does not want to obey anyone unless it is to one instructing or teaching or to one commanding justly and legitimately for the sake of utility; from which arises greatness of soul and the contempt of human things.
[14] Nor indeed is that small, the power of nature and of reason, that this animal alone senses what is order, what is what is becoming, what is the measure in deeds and in words. Therefore, of those things themselves which are sensed by sight, no other animal senses beauty, grace, the consistency of parts; which likeness nature and reason, transferring from the eyes to the mind, thinks that much more beauty, constancy, and order ought to be preserved in plans and deeds, and takes care not to do anything indecorously or effeminately, and, then, in all both opinions and deeds, not to do or think anything wantonly. From which things is composed and made what we are seeking: the honest (
honestum), which even if it is not ennobled, yet is honest, and which we truly say, even if it is praised by no one, is by nature praiseworthy.
Cicerone - De Officiis -Book 1 passes 11-14 - fonte ->
https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/off1.shtml#11
It is the duty of every citizen to defend his own community.
-Giammarco
