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taking away from the gain of the assailant. For the term ‘gain’ is applied
generally to such cases, even if it be not a term appropriate to certain cases,
e.g. to the person who inflicts a woundand ‘loss’ to the sufferer; at all events
when the suffering has been estimated, the one is called loss and the other
gain. Therefore the equal is intermediate between the greater and the less, but
the gain and the loss are respectively greater and less in contrary ways; more
of the good and less of the evil are gain, and the contrary is loss; intermediate
between them is, as we saw, equal, which we say is just; therefore corrective
justice will be the intermediate between loss and gain. This is why, when
people dispute, they take refuge in the judge; and to go to the judge is to go to
justice; for the nature of the judge is to be a sort of animate justice; and they
seek the judge as an intermediate, and in some states they call judges
mediators, on the assumption that if they get what is intermediate they will
get what is just. The just, then, is an intermediate, since the judge is so. Now
the judge restores equality; it is as though there were a line divided into
unequal parts, and he took away that by which the greater segment exceeds
the half, and added it to the smaller segment. And when the whole has been
equally divided, then they say they have ‘their own’-i.e. when they have got
what is equal. The equal is intermediate between the greater and the lesser
line according to arithmetical proportion. It is for this reason also that it is
called just (sikaion), because it is a division into two equal parts (sicha), just
as if one were to call it sichaion; and the judge (sikastes) is one who bisects
(sichastes). For when something is subtracted from one of two equals and
added to the other, the other is in excess by these two; since if what was taken
from the one had not been added to the other, the latter would have been in
excess by one only. It therefore exceeds the intermediate by one, and the
intermediate exceeds by one that from which something was taken. By this,
then, we shall recognize both what we must subtract from that which has
more, and what we must add to that which has less; we must add to the latter
that by which the intermediate exceeds it, and subtract from the greatest that
by which it exceeds the intermediate. Let the lines AA’, BB’, CC’ be equal to
one another; from the line AA’ let the segment AE have been subtracted, and
to the line CC’ let the segment CD have been added, so that the whole line
DCC’ exceeds the line EA’ by the segment CD and the segment CF; therefore
it exceeds the line BB’ by the segment CD. (See diagram.)
These names, both loss and gain, have come from voluntary exchange; for
to have more than one’s own is called gaining, and to have less than one’s
original share is called losing, e.g. in buying and selling and in all other
matters in which the law has left people free to make their own terms; but
when they get neither more nor less but just what belongs to themselves, they
say that they have their own and that they neither lose nor gain.
1823
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156