Justice and Social Virtue
Justice is the virtue that governs our relations with others; it requires giving each person their due and acting for the common good.
For Stoics, justice extends beyond legal compliance to encompass all ethical obligations toward other rational beings. Since all humans share in universal reason (logos), we are members of a single cosmic community. Justice therefore demands impartiality, honesty, and active concern for the welfare of all.
We are all fellow-citizens of one great city.
Stoic justice anticipates cosmopolitan ethics, grounding social obligations in shared rational nature rather than convention.
Meditations
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- What Stoicism says about being wronged
Justice for the Stoics means giving each person their due, including the person who wronged you, because the obligation follows from their rational nature rather than from their conduct. This is the demanding part: being treated unfairly does not release you from fairness.