溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Is Justice Each Doing Their Own Work?
For each to do the work suited to them and not covet another's place — is this the justice of person and society?
To do one's own work and not meddle in others', this is justice.
Plato's answer — that justice is each doing their own work — was long contested. His student Aristotle refined it, dividing justice into giving each their due (distributive) and restoring balance (corrective). But modernity turned the course. Hobbes and Locke found justice not in an inborn place but in contract and rights, and Rawls found it in fair rules all would agree to under a "veil of ignorance." Is justice each one's natural portion, or a rule all have consented to? Across two thousand years the lineage split.
The more an age makes roles fluid and others' lives ever comparable, the more this question — "am I doing the work suited to me?" — asks after justice and calling together.
Plato found justice in an unexpected place.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Plato found justice in an unexpected place. Not a grand rule, but each doing the work of their own station and not meddling in another's. When the rulers rule, the guardians guard, and the producers make, both city and soul come into harmony. I read this not as fixing rank but as asking each their portion fitted to their nature. Am I doing the work suited to me, or envying another's place while neglecting my own? I stand between my work and another's, before this question.
✍️Your Answer
The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.
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This is not a museum of answers but a lineage of questions. All sources are public-domain texts; the lineage and reflection are 100% original ONGO content.
