Wisdom, Truth, and the Rational Soul
The relationship between justice and truth can be deduced from the correlation between wisdom and justice. Wisdom entails comprehending the realities of existent beings. This comprehension, which encompasses both theoretical and practical dimensions—thereby constituting theoretical and practical wisdom—is attained through the intellectual faculty. The intellect identifies the reality of the rational soul, its hierarchies, facets, and faculties, as well as its perfection, goodness, and deficiencies. Consequently, it discerns the virtue inherent in each hierarchy, alongside human felicity and wretchedness. Justice is a specific mode of governance exercised by the rational soul over its hierarchies, facets, and faculties, executed in accordance with virtue following the apprehension of truth. Therefore, justice is predicated upon wisdom and truth, and just conduct is recognized on this basis.
The Epistemological Foundations of Ethics
The aforementioned definition and relational framework of justice remain valid provided the intellect is recognized as a human faculty capable of perceiving both theoretical and practical truths. Consequently, if the discipline of ethics is established upon philosophical foundations that—through positivistic or skeptical approaches—deny the epistemic value of the intellect concerning moral realities and norms, or if it restricts rationality solely to the domain of empirical and testable propositions, it cannot accept this definition of justice. Nor can it interpret and conceptualize justice within the framework of truth.
Justice as a Psychological Habitus
Justice is a psychological virtue associated with the practical intellect. This quality is a psychological state that, considered in itself, is termed a habitus, but with respect to its possessor, is called a virtue. However, its designation as “justice” arises from the nature of the action that the soul performs in relation to others by means of this habitus. Although justice is a psychological habitus, not every habitus is justice. Thus, the logical relationship between a psychological habitus and justice is one of strict inclusion.
Conversely, the relationship between justice and virtue is one of logical equality; that is, every virtue is a form of justice. This is because any virtue, regardless of the faculty it pertains to, is deemed a virtue precisely because it is structured under the administration and supervision of the practical intellect. Although the practical intellect is a motive and agentive faculty, its defining characteristic is that its operations align with wisdom. In practice, the practical intellect seeks the perfection and goodness of each individual faculty. Because it governs the dispositions of all the other faculties, it successfully aligns these traits with the ultimate good of the individual. It is precisely this purposeful direction that elevates a mere disposition into a virtue.
Virtue and Vice: The Golden Mean
Wisdom serves as the criterion that distinguishes virtue from its opposite. Any habitus that deviates from the boundaries of wisdom is classified as a vice, insofar as it inflicts deficiency and harm upon its possessor. Each faculty possesses a specific virtue tailored to its nature, and for any given faculty, there is only one corresponding virtue. However, because deviating from virtue gives rise to vice, a vice may manifest in varying degrees and types. Consequently, the number of vices exceeds the number of virtues.
Transgressing the boundaries of virtue occurs either by neglecting a condition that is essential to the virtue (deficiency) or by introducing a condition that is extraneous to it (excess). Virtue represents the golden mean and serves as the criterion and balance between the two extremes of excess and deficiency. Therefore, virtue is not a reality defined in relation to vices; rather, vices are identified by measuring them against virtue.
Khwājah Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s Geometry of Virtue
Regarding the multiplicity of vices that correspond to each individual virtue, Khwājah Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī writes:
“Thus, every virtue stands as a center point, whereas the corresponding vices are analogous to the peripheries. Consider the center of a circle: on the surface of a circle, the single point that constitutes the center is the farthest point from the circumference. Conversely, all other points—whose numbers are boundless and infinite—whether situated on the circumference or within it, regardless of their position, are closer to the circumference than the center is… This is what the philosophers intend when they state: ‘Virtue resides in the center, while vices lie on the peripheries.’ Consequently, for every virtue, there exists an infinite number of vices, since the center is finite and bounded, whereas the peripheries are infinite and unbounded.”
—from the book Ethics and Mysticism
