Justice is the irreducible spiritual evidence that to each person is due what belongs to them — suum cuique. As a archphenomenon, justice is not derivable from dignity and norm; rather, it is immediately experienced as what it is. It belongs to those fundamental givens of moral life that show themselves in essential intuition without being reducible to simpler elements.
Justice presupposes the ontological dignity of the person. Only because every person possesses an inalienable worth can something be due to them. The claim of justice is not directed merely toward a subjective feeling of fairness. It aims at an objective order in which each person receives what is due to them in virtue of their being a person.
Justice is thereby intimately bound up with natural law. The inalienable rights of the person — to life, freedom, education, community — are forms of expression of justice that precede all positive legislation.
In the social order, justice unfolds as distributive justice (iustitia distributiva), which aims at ensuring that the goods of the common good are distributed in such a way that each person can actualize their fundamental form of reality in all three dimensions. The Personalist Norm provides the criterion here: just is that which respects and fosters the person as person; unjust is that which instrumentalizes them or hinders them in their unfolding.
Justice is not a mere principle of distribution but a spiritual virtue — a disposition that responds to the person as person. It demands the readiness to orient one’s own action toward the objective order of the good, even where this requires personal sacrifice.
Ontological classification
- Superordinate concept: archphenomenon
- has subclass: Principle of Justice
Ontological relations:
- is subclass of: Principle of Justice, archphenomenon
Principle of Need
The principle of need is a principle of justice that requires the distribution of resources according to the need for actualizing the dimensions of personhood. It stands alongside the principle of equality and the principle of subsidiarity as a concretization of distributive justice. By virtue of their dignity, every person has a claim to those resources they need in order to unfold their fundamental form of reality in all three dimensions.
Ontological classification: Superordinate concept: Principle of Justice
Principle of Justice
The principle of justice is a fundamental standard for evaluating distributive structures in society and the commonwealth. It stands in the service of justice as a archphenomenon and is ultimately founded in the dignity of the person (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 310 ff.).
From the perspective of the ontology of the person, the principle of justice unfolds in several subordinate principles. The principle of need demands that the basic needs of the person be secured. The principle of equality requires that like cases be treated alike. The principle of subsidiarity protects the self-responsibility of the smaller communities. Intergenerational justice widens the view toward the obligations owed to future persons.
All these principles derive from the Personalist Norm. Structures are just insofar as they respect and foster the person as person.
Principle of Equality
The principle of equality states: equal dignity grounds an equal fundamental claim. As a principle of justice, it concretizes the demand that, by virtue of their personhood, every person has the same fundamental claim to the respect and enablement of their fundamental form of reality. It stands alongside the principle of need and the principle of subsidiarity as a standard of distributive justice.
What is decisive is that equality here does not mean uniformity but equal ontological dignity. Every person — independently of life phase, disability or social status — possesses, as a substance with a rational nature, the same dignity. The principle of equality is therefore directed against every form of instrumentalization that ascribes to certain persons a lesser claim than to others.
Together with the principle of need and the principle of subsidiarity, it forms the triangle of principles of justice that must guide every just distributive structure.
Ontological classification: Superordinate concept: Principle of Justice
Intergenerational Justice
Intergenerational justice designates the moral demand that currently existing persons owe just living conditions to future persons (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 321 ff.).
This demand is grounded in the ontological insight that future persons possess the same dignity as present ones. Personhood is bound not to temporal existence but to rational nature. From this follows an anticipatory responsibility that comprises in particular the preservation of the natural foundations of life.
Whoever exploits the resources of the earth in such a way that coming generations cannot lead a life worthy of human beings violates justice. Intergenerational justice is therefore an essential subordinate principle of the principle of justice and closely connected with ecological responsibility.
Duty toward future persons
Ontological relation: Currently existing persons owe future persons the preservation of the conditions for the actualization of their dimensions. This duty is grounded in intergenerational justice: because every future person will have ontological dignity (the necessity of personhood as an essential law), the Personalist Norm demands, across time, the affirmation of personhood. The relation connects materially with the “is necessary condition for” relation: the preservation of intact ecosystems and natural foundations of life is a central obligation toward future persons. It likewise comprises the duty to pass on cultural goods and to safeguard educational resources, without which the Second Dimension of personhood cannot be actualized.
- Domain: Currently existing person
- Range: Intergenerational justice
Principle of Subsidiarity
The principle of subsidiarity states: what the smaller community can accomplish should not be taken over by the larger one. It protects the self-responsibility of the person and stands alongside the principle of equality and the principle of need as a principle of justice. Subsidiarity safeguards freedom and self-determination at the smallest level capable of acting and prevents a takeover by superordinate institutions that would tend to hinder rather than foster personal unfolding.
Ontological classification: Superordinate concept: Principle of Justice
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.
Further sources:
- Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 58 (On justice — suum cuique)
- Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, V (Justice as virtue and principle of distribution)