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The Ethics of Aristotle - Penn State Hazleton

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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Ethics</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Aristotle</strong>armour worth a hundred oxen for that which was worth butnine”) is not unjustly dealt with, because the giving restsentirely with himself; but being unjustly dealt with does not,there must be some other person who is dealing unjustlytowards him.With respect to being unjustly dealt with then, it is clearthat it is not voluntary.<strong>The</strong>re remain yet two points on which we purposed tospeak: first, is he chargeable with an unjust act who in distributionhas given the larger share to one party contrary to theproper rate, or he that has the larger share? next, can a mandeal unjustly by himself?In the first question, if the first-named alternative is possibleand it is the distributor who acts unjustly and not hewho has the larger share, then supposing that a person knowinglyand willingly gives more to another than to himselfhere is a case <strong>of</strong> a man dealing unjustly by himself; which, infact, moderate men are thought to do, for it is a characteristic<strong>of</strong> the equitable man to take less than his due.Is not this the answer? that the case is not quite fairly stated,because <strong>of</strong> some other good, such as credit or the abstracthonourable, in the supposed case the man did get the largershare. And again, the difficulty is solved by reference to thedefinition <strong>of</strong> unjust dealing: for the man suffers nothing contraryto his own wish, so that, on this score at least, he is notunjustly dealt with, but, if anything, he is hurt only.It is evident also that it is the distributor who acts unjustlyand not the man who has the greater share: because the merefact <strong>of</strong> the abstract Unjust attaching to what a man does,does not constitute unjust action, but the doing this voluntarily:and voluntariness attaches to that quarter whence isthe origination <strong>of</strong> the action, which clearly is in the distributornot in the receiver. And again the term doing is used inseveral senses; in one sense inanimate objects kill, or the hand,or the slave by his master’s bidding; so the man in questiondoes not act unjustly but does things which are in themselvesunjust.[Sidenote: 1137a] Again, suppose that a man has made awrongful award in ignorance; in the eye <strong>of</strong> the law he doesnot act unjustly nor is his awarding unjust, but yet he is in acertain sense: for the Just according to law and primary ornatural Just are not coincident: but, if he knowingly decided125

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