Particular justice and its architectonics in Aristotle’s Ethica Nicomachea V

This paper presents a reconstruction of Aristotle’s conceptual architectonics of particular justice. It has been noticed that Aristotle’s account of just/unjust action is not informed by an account of the character trait of particular justice/injustice, and this has sparked serious concern about whether Aristotle’s treatment of particular justice is consistent with his general programme of ethics. In response, I propose that at least on one possible construal, the ‘definitional priority of virtue’ thesis is not prescribed by Aristotle’s agent-centred approach to ethics. Aristotle is thereby justified in ascribing definitional priority to just/unjust states of affairs in his investigation of particular justice, and this conceptual architectonics is both internally coherent and compatible with his agent-centred approach to ethics.