[ I am back working through my prison journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. sch 7/6/2025]
I never thought of the interplay between justice and charity and love until I read Michael Eric Dyson's Can You Hear Me Now?:
We must never ignore the injustices that make charity necessary, or the inequalities that make it possible.
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It ain't about love. It's about justice. And justice says that "Even if I love you, don't use my love for you to exploit me."
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Charity is episodic and often driven by disaster. We need structures of justice that perpetuate the good will intended in charity. Justice allows charity to live beyond crisis.
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Charity is a hit-or-miss proposition; folk who tire of giving stop doing so when they think they've done enough. Justice seeks to take the distracting and fleeting emotions out of giving. Justice does not depend on feeling to do the right thing. It depends on right action and sound thinking about the most helpful route to the best outcome.
Chapter 9: Justice and Suffering
Aristotle listed justice and charity in his The Nicomachean Ethics. Love and charity are Christian virtues. I do not recall Aristotle's charity as a gap-filler for justice. Dyson's position makes sense.
I read Dyson as presupposing government shall take on the majority of the work on justice for the governed. I see it as our responsibility as citizens to make certain justice exists under our governments. I suspect Dr. Dyson would agree. After all, did not Aristotle claim the purpose of government was justice? Read our state constitutions and see how many were formed to promote justice amongst its citizens.
As with justice, so with charity. We must practice charity personally and socially. Socially includes the apparatus known as government. If we do not practice justice personally, we shall become an unjust society. Without personal charity, we cannot be a charitable nation. Living vicariously through another is a sham. Vicarious justice and charity share the same fraudulent quality.
Michael Eric Dyson showed me another possible link between Aristotle's ethics and Christian ethics. Courage was one of Aristotle's virtues. I might quibble that being virtuous requires courage first, but having publicly failed at being virtuous, I may be showing a bias here.
You can't be courageous without having love. You can't love without compassion. You can't have compassion without seeking justice. You know, as the common rally cry goes forth, no justice, no peace. That signifies that the virtues are unified - you can't really have one without having them all.
Chapter 9: Justice and Suffering
Think about all that. I am. Where do we go from here?
sch
[7/6/2025:
One thing missing from prison is information. No Google. I would have liked to see what others thought about the books I noted above. Well, I got that chance now, and you can decide if I am a moron or not. You may also want to follow the links provided in the text.
What follows is due to me catching a possible error in what I wrote over 12 years ago - that is, Aristotle may not have used the term we would translate as charity.
Aristotle Quotes About Charity (A-Z Quotes) - charity is not mentioned there.
How to read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (Commonplace Philosophy) - or here.
Aristotle: Ethics (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - or here.
Friendship, Aristotle and the Christian charity - does mention charity, but not in connection with Aristotle.
"... Conversely, it is fitting to go unasked and readily to the aid of those in adversity (for it is characteristic of a friend to render services, and especially to those who are in need and have not demanded them; such action is nobler and pleasanter for both persons); but when our friends are prosperous we should join readily in their activities (for they need friends for these too), but be tardy in coming forward to be the objects of their kindness; for it is not noble to be keen to receive benefits”
Nope, generosity appears to be more correct for Aristotle than charity:
Happiness depends on acquiring a moral character, where one displays the virtues of courage, generosity, justice, friendship, and citizenship in one's life. These virtues involve striking a balance or "mean" between an excess and a deficiency (vice). It is after all what we all desire.
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: The Original and Best Self-help Book
sch]
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