Hence one term becomes too great, the other
too small, as indeed happens in practice; for the man who acts
unjustly has too much, and the man who is unjustly treated too little,
of what is good. In the case of evil the reverse is true; for the
lesser evil is reckoned a good in comparison with the greater evil,
since the lesser evil is rather to be chosen than the greater, and
what is worthy of choice is good, and what is worthier of choice a
greater good.
This, then, is one species of the just.
4
(B) The remaining one is the rectificatory, which arises in
connexion with transactions both voluntary and involuntary. This
form of the just has a different specific character from the former.
For the justice which distributes common possessions is always in
accordance with the kind of proportion mentioned above (for in the
case also in which the distribution is made from the common funds of a
partnership it will be according to the same ratio which the funds put
into the business by the partners bear to one another); and the
injustice opposed to this kind of justice is that which violates the
proportion. But the justice in transactions between man and man is a
sort of equality indeed, and the injustice a sort of inequality; not
according to that kind of proportion, however, but according to
arithmetical proportion.
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