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1. Introduction Have you been just today? Chances are, that strikes you as an odd question. You may well reply that you have had little occasion to be either just or unjust. Apart from specialized circumstances-you are a judge, traffic appeals officer, or referee, or you happened to serve on a jury or grade papers-the question will seem misplaced.
In recent decades, most philosophical discussion of justice has centered around political and legal affairs. Debates about wealth distribution, trial procedures, and punishments have so dominated our thinking about justice that the idea of justice as a personal virtue-a characteristic that an individual might cultivate apart from her specific role in some institutional structure-sounds strangely misconceived. By focusing on legal and social justice, we have neglected an important dimension of a morally good life. My purpose here is to begin to remedy that neglect by examining justice as a personal virtue.
By "personal justice" I mean those obligations of justice not rooted in conventional roles and responsibilities. Personal justice is not merely a different perspective on "social" justice; it does not consist simply of fulfilling one's role in some larger social enterprise. Rather, an individual may exhibit personal justice in her private dealings with others; no reference to any formal social structures is necessary to make the justice of an individual's actions intelligible. 1
At the outset, I should clarify the parameters of this project. While historically, justice has often been regarded as a master virtue encompassing many others, my subject is justice as one specific virtue. I am not investigating moral virtue overall.
Further, I am presupposing a teleological conception of ethics, that is, an ends-based rather than a duty-based moral code. The moral propriety of actions depends on their relationship to an overarching end. While the defense of a teleological moral code is an enormous, separate project, here, I simply take it as my starting point. Opponents of teleology will find no direct attempts to sway them (though some of the sense of a teleological ethics can be glimpsed through our examination of justice.) 2
My aim in this paper is two-fold. In part, I simply wish to stimulate greater attention to personal justice, since its neglect leaves a serious gap in our understanding...