Whether Injustice Is a Special Virtue?
Objection 1: It would seem that injustice is not a special vice. For
it is written (1 John 3:4): "All sin is iniquity [*Vulg.: 'Whosoever
committeth sin, committeth also iniquity; and sin is iniquity']." Now
iniquity would seem to be the same as injustice, because justice is a
kind of equality, so that injustice is apparently the same as
inequality or iniquity. Therefore injustice is not a special sin.
Obj. 2: Further, no special sin is contrary to all the virtues. But
injustice is contrary to all the virtues: for as regards adultery it
is opposed to chastity, as regards murder it is opposed to meekness,
and in like manner as regards the other sins. Therefore injustice is
not a special sin.
Obj. 3: Further, injustice is opposed to justice which is in the
will. But every sin is in the will, as Augustine declares (De Duabus
Anim. x). Therefore injustice is not a special sin.
_On the contrary,_ Injustice is contrary to justice. But justice is a
special virtue. Therefore injustice is a special vice.
_I answer that,_ Injustice is twofold. First there is illegal
injustice which is opposed to legal justice: and this is essentially
a special vice, in so far as it regards a special object, namely the
common good which it contemns; and yet it is a general vice, as
regards the intention, since contempt of the common good may lead to
all kinds of sin. Thus too all vices, as being repugnant to the
common good, have the character of injustice, as though they arose
from injustice, in accord with what has been said above about justice
(Q. 58, AA. 5, 6). Secondly we speak of injustice in reference to an
inequality between one person and another, when one man wishes to
have more goods, riches for example, or honors, and less evils, such
as toil and losses, and thus injustice has a special matter and is a
particular vice opposed to particular justice.
Reply Obj. 1: Even as legal justice is referred to human
common good, so Divine justice is referred to the Divine good, to
which all sin is repugnant, and in this sense all sin is said to be
iniquity.
Reply Obj. 2: Even particular justice is indirectly opposed to
all the virtues; in so far, to wit, as even external acts pertain both
to justice and to the other moral virtues, although in different ways
as stated above (Q. 58, A. 9, ad 2).
Reply Obj. 3: The will, like the reason, extends to all moral
matters, i.e. passions and those external operations that relate to
another person. On the other hand justice perfects the will solely in
the point of its extending to operations that relate to another: and
the same applies to injustice.
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