Aristotle on Justice and Law: Koinonia, Justice and Politeia
| Autor | Giovanni Bombelli |
| Páginas | 1080-1101 |
1080 • XXVI World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
Aristotle on Justice and Law:
Koinonia, Justice and Politeia
Giovanni Bombelli
Abstract: Aristotle’s theory of law, especially with reference to the idea of jus-
ticecanbeunderstoodasadierentmodelifcomparedtocontemporaryper-
spectives. Nevertheless, in the light of the complex and globalized societies, the
interest for the Aristotelian perspective is based at least on three concepts: koi-
noniajusticeand politeiaTheoretically koinoniacommunity representsthe
ontological model by which Aristotle understands the human relationship and,
at the same time, is the conceptual horizon within which the notion of ‘justice’
andthe polaritykoinoniadikeemerges Justicedike as avirtue based on
the communitarian nomos, represents the ‘boundary line’ between community
and mere alliance, that is to say the condition for eunomia and the political ob-
ligation. Furthermore, dike is a ‘pragmatic and universal’ dimension and com-
munity represents the theoretical ‘space’ for its elaboration: justice is an ideal
principle whereas law, including epieikeia and the couple physikon dikaion-no-
mikon dikaion, represents its historical determination. On a political-constitu-
tional level the central role of politeia emerges: it is a ‘just equilibrium’, based
on the ‘proportionality’ developed into the communitarian context, and the con-
stitutional articulation of the relation among the citizens. Koinonia and politeia
arenottobeconfusedthelaerisanadaptableparadigmwhereastheformeris
itscriticallterAristotlestheoryisanopenmodel becausetheexiblenotion
of justice is adaptable to a variety of human relations and, similarly, the po-
liteia-mesotes evolves as the paradigm of koinonia. Hence the modernity of this
perspective the great exibility of the circle koinoniajusticepoliteia could
represent a theoretical model to understand the present complex societies and
the issues related to the ongoing globalization, especially in order to endorse the
current multiple models of justice.
Keywords: Community - Justice - Politeia
1. Premise
From a legal and philosophical point of view, Aristotle’s theory
oflawwithspecicreferencetotheideaofjusticecanbeunderstood
Special Workshop: e idea of Justice • 1081
in some way as a very peculiar conceptual model, especially if it is com-
pared to many contemporary perspectives related to both a liberal per-
spective (i.e. Rawls’ model1) and the communitarian movement2.
Nevertheless, Aristotle’s theory of justice still appears very use-
ful in order to understand our social contexts. In fact, due to the com-
plexity of its theoretical structure it constitutes a rich conceptual para-
digm, somehow disconnected from its historical reference and, hence,
stillable tointerpret socialand politicalmodels thatareverydierent
compared to the Greek polis3.
This possible reinterpretation of the Aristotelian perspective is
not necessarily (neither only) based on a Rehabilitierung der praktischen
Philosophie perspective, classically related to notions as phronesis and vir-
tue and broadly known as a typical aspect of the Aristotle’s Renaissance
ourishedinthe lastcentury4. On the contrary, in order to understand
Aristotle’s theory it is necessary to take into account the strict relations
between its parts and, then, the entire philosophical model elaborated
by the Greek philosopher (not only those aspects concerning ethics and
politics).
In this paper I intend to focus only on some aspects of the Ar-
istotelian theory of justice, starting from some selected arguments pre-
sented in Politics and in Nicomachean Ethics. More precisely, I argue that
the current interest for the Aristotelian perspective, and especially for its
notionof justicedike), should be based at least on the analysis of the
relation underlying three complex concepts: a) koinonia, b) justice and c)
politeia.
These notions, intrinsically very complicated, are strictly con-
nected to each other, because they trace a sort of theoretical circle: in other
wordswecanunderstandtheAristoteliannotionofjusticeonlyinthe
1
John Rawls, A eory of Justice (Cambridge: e Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 1971).
2
Alasdair MacIntyre, Aer Virtue. A Study in Moral eory (Notre Dame IN: Universi-
ty of Notre Dame Press, 1981); Alasdair MacIntyre Whose Justice? Which Rationality?
(Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988); Charles Taylor, Sources of the
Self. e Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992);
Michael Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1982); Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice. A Defence of Pluralism and Equality (Ox-
ford: Blackwell, 1983).
3
Enrico Berti, Aristotele nel Novecento (Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1992).
4
Paradigmatically Manfred Riedel, Rehabilitierung der praktischen Philosophie (Freiburg:
Rombach, 1972-1974).
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