. Therefore justice says that man should not steal. Aristotle talks of the working of this virtue. He relates it to friendship and discusses differential levels of justice. It is more unjust to ignore those closely attached to you, in example friends, comrades, and family, than strangers. This does not mean though that justice need not be used when dealing with strangers. It instead puts a greater responsibility of the individual to act justly toward those close people. (Pocket Ar., 247) Justice is especially important since man is a social animal and acting selfishly is against human nature adequately understood because in order for societies to exist some type of system for treatment of others is necessary. The virtue of justice is also necessary in the making of laws in that it tells how people should be treated, since laws should be just and in accordance with human nature adequately understood. But he [man] who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of the state. A social instinct is planted in all men by nature, … For man when perfected, is the e best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of allThis quote of Aristotle from Elements of Philosophy (pg. 147) reiterates the importance of justice to society. Hobbes came to the conclusion that laws can dictate justice since justice means to obey the laws. ( Elements, 186) But as stated before the laws are developed with reason and justice. So the laws cannot be dictated from the virtue of justice and also dictate justice. The virtue of justice must then be part of the process of creating laws since this is the more reasonable of the two possibilities. This is because if someone creates a law it does not mean it is just. Here is an example: a people of African-American descent must be segregated from the main population of society...
