Aristotle's account of justice has inspired thinkers as diverse as Thomas Aquinas and Martha Nussbaum. Concepts such as distributive justice, equity, the common good, and the distinction between just and unjust political organizations find articulations in his writings. But although Aristotle's account of justice remains philosophically relevant, its intellectual, social, and political origins in the Mediterranean world of the fourth century BCE have often been overlooked. This book places Aristotle's account of justice in dialogue with his fourth-century intellectual colleagues such as Plato, Xenophon, and Isocrates, and allows it to be understood within the framework of fourth-century institutions as they were experienced by citizens of ancient Greek political communities. It thus provides the modern reader with the framework which Aristotle presupposed for his original work in antiquity, including the intellectual debates which formed its context.

‘Aristotle on Justice presents a comprehensive and unified interpretation of Aristotle's account of justice as a virtue of human beings and of political communities. Lockwood offers a wide-ranging critical overview of scholarship in the course of developing creative and thought-provoking readings of his own. Specialist readers will find nearly every page worth engaging, while those with broader interests in the history of philosophy will be well rewarded by the book's synoptic perspective.'

David Riesbeck - University of California, Berkeley