First Principles Friday: Use Stoic Justice to Bring your Community Together
Lead with justice to embody kindness and goodwill toward others
“[Justice] constitutes the bond of human society and of a virtual community of life” — Cicero
As I’ve mentioned over the past three Fridays, Stoicism is a school of philosophy focusing strongly on the virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. I’ve already talked about the first 3 virtues and how they apply to leadership.
Today I’m concluding this series with the fourth and final virtue- justice.
How the Stoics Define Justice
When you hear the word justice, you may think of righting a wrong, like a jury reading out a guilty verdict. But Stoics don’t view justice in the legal sense. It’s broader than that and constitutes the bond of human society and of a community of life, as Cicero put it.
Stoic Justice is based on the idea of sympatheia, which is the belief in mutual interdependence- that all things and people are woven together…
