=The Good and the Just.=--The conceptions of the Good and the Just are
developed from the two notes just presented. The motive for challenge to
established institutions was the awakening desire of the individual to
seek his own good and to live his own life. Commerce was bringing a
great variety of rewards to the shrewd merchant and a great variety of
goods to evoke and gratify wants. Slavery set free the citizen from the
need of manual labor and gave him leisure to cultivate his tastes. The
forces of individualism, described in Chapter V., were all at work to
bring the process and object of desire to consciousness. Moreover, the
term "good" was also in use to mark the popular ideal. It was applied to
what we should call the "successful" men of the day. In present life our
term "good" has become so definitely moral that probably most young
persons would hesitate to say that they have it as their ideal to become
good, although few would hesitate to say that they wish to be capable
and successful. For social and political recognition seems to be based
rather on achievement of striking results than upon what is technically
called "goodness." But in Greece moral goodness was not used to
designate "character" as contrasted with "results." The "good man" was
like the "good lawyer" or "good athlete" or "good soldier," the man who
was efficient and conspicuous. It was in the process which we are to
trace that the ambiguities and deeper meanings of the term came to
definition.
The terms Just and Justice were not of course merely synonyms for order
and measure. They had likewise the social significance coming from the
courts and the assembly. They stood for the control side of life, as
Good stood for its aspect of valuation and desire. But as compared with
the Hebrew conception of righteousness, they meant much less a
conformity to a law divine or human which had been already set up as
standard, and much more, an ordering, a regulating, a harmonizing. The
rational element of measure or order was more prominent than the
personal note of authority. Hence we shall find Plato passing easily
back and forth between justice or order in the individual and justice or
order in the State. On the other hand, the radicals of the day could
seize upon the legal usage and declare that Justice or the Law was
purely a matter of self-interest or class interest.
§ 2. INTELLECTUAL FORCES OF INDIVIDUALISM
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account