Justice as a Virtue: A Thomistic Perspective
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Explores Aquinas’s concept of justice—and why it matters today.
“Aquinas,” says Jean Porter, “gets justice right.” In this book she shows that Aquinas offers us a cogent and illuminating account of justice as a personal virtue rather than a virtue of social institutions, as John Rawls and his interlocutors have described it—and as most people think of it today.
Porter presents a thoughtful interpretation of Aquinas's account of the complex virtue of justice as set forth in the Summa theologiae, focusing on his key claim that justice is a perfection of the will. Building on her interpretation of Aquinas on justice, Porter also develops a constructive expansion of his work, illuminating major aspects of Aquinas’s views and resolving tensions in his thought so as to draw out contemporary implications of his account of justice that he could not have anticipated.
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- Presents a study of the virtue of justice as Aquinas presents it in the Summa theologiae
- Seeks to draw out the contemporary significance of Aquina’s account
- Attempts to present an interpretation of Aquinas’s account of justice and virtue that is persuasive while also making the best case for the theory of morality implied by such account
- Justice as a Virtue
- Virtues and Vices of the Will
- Justice as a Moral Ideal
- From Ideal to Law
- The Perfections of the Will
It is very difficult to bring a historical philosopher into dialogue with present-day philosophers without evident signs of strain. Jean Porter brings off this difficult feat with aplomb in Justice as a Virtue: A Thomistic Perspective. She moves back and forth with ease between an exhaustive knowledge and penetrating interpretation of Thomas’s texts and the discussions taking place in philosophy today on the same and related topics. A very impressive achievement.
Nicholas Wolterstorff — Yale University
An elegant, deeply learned book on the foundations of Aquinas’s moral theory. Jean Porter mixes, as few scholars can, a broad historical perspective and a serious engagement with contemporary problems in philosophy and theology.
Robert Pasnau — University of Colorado
This is a must-read for anyone who wants to think deeply about our obligations to one another, the roles of both nature and nurture in moral formation, and the centrality of justice to the good life.
Stephen J. Pope — Boston College
- Title: Justice as a Virtue: A Thomistic Perspective
- Author: Jean Porter
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2016
- Logos Release Date: 2025
- Pages: 286
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subjects: Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274; Justice (Virtue); Virtues
- ISBNs: 9780802873255, 9781467446204, 0802873251, 1467446203
- Resource ID: LLS:JUSTICEVIRTUE
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-10-31T21:12:55Z