Michael of Ephesus and the Byzantine reception of the aristotelian doctrine of natural justice

Michael of Ephesus was the first medieval author to comment upon Book V of the Nicomachean Ethics. In his work, he paid special attention to passage 1134b18-1135a5, in which Aristotle delineates the distinction between that which is just by nature and that which is just by convention. Michael not only detects the fundamental questions arising from this text that have occupied the attention of interpreters in the intervening centuries, he also manages to offer original solutions, especially with regards to the problem of change in those things that are just by nature.