Aquinas's grounding of redistribution in natural law commits him to a universal duty, yet the vocation-relative definition of surplus entrenches existing social hierarchies rather than correcting them, producing an internal inconsistency in the argument's egalitarian ambitions.
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Systems where some people are ranked as 'higher' or more important than others based on their job, wealth, birth, or status. Medieval feudalism is an example where kings were at the top and peasants at the bottom.
Surplus(Philosophical surplus means unnecessary elements for answering philosophical questions)
Extra stuff that goes beyond what you need; something left over that isn't essential to solving the main problem.
Universal duty(ethics)
An obligation that applies to all people in similar situations, without exception.
Vocation-relative(how Aquinas defines what counts as surplus (extra wealth))
Something that depends on your job, role, or social position. For example, a vocation-relative duty might mean 'if you're a doctor, you have a duty to help the sick,' but ordinary people don't have that exact same duty.
grounding(Drawn from contemporary metaphysics; proposed as potentially applicable to understanding the foundations of legality.)
A metaphysical relation in which some entities or facts are more foundational than others, providing a hierarchical structure of the world.
natural law(Locke's Essays on the Law of Nature)
A moral-legal framework that satisfies all the requisites of law: grounded in a superior will, rule-establishing, and binding on humans
redistribution(The passage notes identifying whether redistribution has occurred is difficult because implementers' purposes are often opaque)
A change in the distribution of holdings (e.g., income or wealth) across a population, whether or not intentionally brought about