The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
4. The names of _just_, _unjust_, _justice_, _injustice_, are
equivocal, and signify diversly. For justice and injustice, when
they be attributed to actions, signify the same thing with _no
injury_, and _injury_, and denominate the action _just_, or
_unjust_, but not the man so. For they denominate him _guilty_, or
_not guilty_. But when justice or injustice, are attributed to men,
they signify _proneness_, and affection and inclination of nature,
that is to say, passions of the mind, apt to produce just and unjust
actions. So that when a man is said to be just, or unjust; not the
action, but the passion and aptitude, to do such actions, is
considered. And therefore a just man may have committed an unjust
act; and an unjust man may have done justly, not only one, but most
of his actions. For there is an _oderunt peccare_ in the unjust, as
well as in the just, but from different causes. For the unjust man
who abstaineth from injuries for fear of punishment, declareth
plainly, that the justice of his actions dependeth upon civil
constitution, from whence punishments proceed, which would otherwise
in the estate of nature be unjust, according to the fountain from
whence they spring. This distinction therefore of _justice_, and
_injustice_, ought to be remembered, that when injustice is taken
for guilty, the action is unjust, but not therefore the man; and
when justice is taken for _guiltlessness_, the actions are just, and
yet not always the man. Likewise when justice and injustice are
taken for habits of the mind, the man may be just, or unjust, and
yet not all his actions so.
[Sidenote: Justice not rightly divided into commutative, and
distributive.]