THE CLASSİFİCATİON OF JUSTİCE İN ISLAMİC PHİLOSOPHY İN 10 AND 11TH CENTURY: THE CASE OF AL-FÂRÂBÎ, AL-ÂMÎRÎ, IBN MİSKAWAYH AND RAGHIP AL-ISFEHÂNÎ

The justice has been one of the most cited concepts throughout human history. Although the justice has been examined with different meanings and appearances, no consensus has been reached on its definition. The distinctions made on justice make it easier to understand. It can be said that the first systematic classification of justice in philosophy started with Aristotle (d. 322 BC). Aristotle's classification of distributive and rectificatory justice has been adopted by subsequent philosophers. al-Fârâbî (d. 339/950), al-Âmîrî (d. 381/992) and Ibn Miskawayh (d. 421/1030) have adopted this classification of Aristotle. al-Fârâbî's natural justice, Raghıp al-Isfehânî's (the first quarter of the 11th century) absolute and qualified justice classification, and Ibn Miskawayh's natural, legal, optional and Divine justice are the original classification of these philosophers. These justice classification of Islamic philosophers who are mentioned have also been adopted by philosophers who have follow them. In addition, the similarites between Ibn Miskawayh's four justice classification and Western Medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas's (d. 1274) four law distinctions were also noted in this article.