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Justice is not an absolute value but a practical agreement among people to avoid harming one another.

Epicur · Maximele fundamentale · -280 · Maxima 331 minute readpublic domain
Justice is nothing in itself, but a mutual pact in any place and time not to harm and not to be harmed.Epicur · Maximele fundamentale · -280 · Maxima 33

Justice isn't written into nature; it's the pact by which people agree not to harm each other.

There is no justice written into nature, valid everywhere in the same way; it arises wherever people agree, tacitly or explicitly, not to attack each other. The mechanism is simple: if you harm no one, you have nothing to fear from retaliation, so you live at ease. That is why rules differ between communities — a property law, for instance, only matters where there is something to divide and someone to take it.

Why it mattersIt helps when thinking about laws and social norms: ask what kind of non-aggression pact a rule serves and for whom, instead of treating it as an eternal truth.

Mutualnon-harmYou harm nooneNo oneharms youPeacefullife
The chain that makes the justice pact worth keeping

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