The formulation of the idea of justice in the "poem on justice"

• Main Author: Kaluđerović Željko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bar Association of Vojvodina, Novi Sad 2020-01-01
• Series: Glasnik Advokatske komore Vojvodine
• Subjects: hesiod; work and days; justice; poem on justice; action; bia; nomos
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0017-0933/2020/0017-09332004727K.pdf

As one of the most important principles of forming of social relations, Hesiod emphasizes the principle of justice. He places the idea of justice into the very core of life, because it is in this idea that he finds the root out of which a different world and a better one is to be born. Hesiod's idea of justice is manifested as a need for strengthening the relation of equivalence when it is stable and adequate, and for its establishing in case it is disbalanced and inadequate. The presence of justice at all levels, from the highest metaphysical one, all the way to the relations within the practical sphere, shows that it can be considered as a mighty deity, as a cosmic principle, but also as a legitimate basis of comprehensive human action. In Hesiod's writings it is finally suggested that there is a difference between the order of causality of irrational nature and the order of duties of morality, actually between bia on one hand and nomos and dike on the other. Believing that living beings can not disturb the order of bia, while humans can disturb the order of dike, Hesiod postulates the difference which will be crucial for the later philosophical consideration of the field of praxis.