Justice In Plato's The Republic

384 Words2 Pages
As Book II of The Republic begins, Socrates seems to believe he has ended the argument of defining justice. Glaucon and the brothers, however, present Socrates with a new challenge: to prove that justice is not only an ambition, but also that those who desire justice yearn for it for their own well-being (CITE). Glaucon is adamant that no man lives a just life simply for the purpose of being an honest man with a healthy soul. To prove this point, Glaucon alludes to The Ring of Gyges, a legend in which a shepherd finds a golden ring in a cave that contains magical powers. When the shepherd wore the ring, he discovered that when “he turned the collet inward, he became invisible, when outward, visible” (REP 360a4-5). With this newfound power