The nature of Right and Justice as a balance of Forces in Nietzsche

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to analyze the nature of right and justice as a balance of forces according to Nietzsche, who counters the idea which says that rights can be equated and justice is equality. Thus, admitting that life is constituted by forces and rights can be existent within life, and knowing that forces cannot be  equalised by definition, what is left for justice is the balance of these forces, which, in the political sphere, are named rights. For Nietzsche, a right is a quantum of force, not distinguished from a privilege, which some might only have to the detriment of others. Therefore, the inequality inherent in life is the condition of possibility for the need of justice as the balance of such forces. The philosopher admits the inequality of human beings and claims that State itself rises from the will of the stronger, but the balance of forces, which is necessary to redress the destructive and resentful affections originated from this inequality, gives to these affections a quantum of privilege, so as to conserve the forces. According to the German philosopher, if the equality of forces were required as if were the idea of justice or as a cause, not as a consequence of life, this could only be given through violence, that forces the unequal to be equal against its own nature. Therefore, the claim for "equality" is, in fact, amounts to the claim for the balance of forces, for a force can only be "equal" to itself, although it may be in balance with others.