Outline of the Question

41. Timeliness of the question. In order that the various present controversies concerning taxes, the just wage of a worker, etc., may be defined more accurately, it is necessary that we acquire a distinct notion of the two parts of justice which are called legal and distributive. Yet the more expedient and necessary the investigation is, the easier it does not thereby become, especially since the doctors of the first rank who flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries merely touched upon this matter, as could have been sufficient at that time. Hence confused notions are found among them; indeed, to disclose our mind sincerely, a not entirely genuine understanding of the Philosopher and St. Thomas. Nevertheless, their great authority has furnished not a few writers of our age an occasion for error, which gives rise to no slight inconvenience in present-day questions.

42. Rationale of the order. Desiring to provide as much as possible for clarity, we shall arrange this question so that we treat legal and distributive justice in two distinct chapters. And in the former chapter, we shall recount the various opinions before undertaking to defend our own position. Once this has been proved, it will then be possible to refute briefly the opinions which seem to us to depart from the truth.