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Justice In Socrates 'And Cephalus' The Republic

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The general theme of The Republic is the meaning of justice captured by Socrates and Cephalus speaking about the benefits of growing old. The conversation quickly becomes an argument between the two about what justice is. Cephalus is a business man, a pillar of the community, and a man of religion. When speaking about his wealth he seems apathetic about money; this is when Socrates has an epiphany about Cephalus inheriting his money and explains the manner in which one acquires their money as speaks volumes to how intently they appreciate it. Cephalus does points out that he has earned his own share of money on top of what he has already inherited, and he would be leaving his son more than he inherited. This point about Cephalus’ finances speaks to how …show more content…

One other example to this flaw can be outlined in the following scenario; I am holding a set of keys and my friend who is the owner of them is impaired, my friend is persistent in getting his keys back; according to Cepalus my only concern is to return the keys to the rightful owner, but by doing so I will enable them to drive under the influence and possible cause an accident because of it. Cephalus states that my responsibility is to return what does not belong to me and nothing more, yet if by doing this my friend ends up hurting or killing an innocent driver then wouldn’t this be a unjust act? Then it is transparent that it is not always right to return your debts. Due to the Religious aspect of Cephalus’ reasoning it is likely that he does not differentiate between legality and justice because he believes it to be one, if all law rests on the weight of authority then Cephalus does not see a difference in law and justice because the gods have authority of

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If he was not loyal about his City he would not have made all of these rules. Yes, Creon is very stubborn and controlling, but to be honest it’s for the best. When being loyal to a kingdom it is best to make sure you are doing anything and everything to make sure you are doing your best to make your people believe in you and wanting to keep a strong person as a leader, however in cerons thinking he’s a little hot headed which makes it difficult to believe in him. In the play Ceron is defined as “ A powerfully built, but a weary and wrinkled man suffering the burdens of rule.

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The version of Socrates presented in both The Apology, Crito, and The Republic could very well be two different versions of Socrates as presented by Plato. However, both versions of Socrates have one thing in common: they both value the importance of philosophy and they both defend philosophy as something that is important to humanity. The Apology is Socrates defending not only himself, but also philosophy as an area of study that could be useful to the city of Athens. Socrates is trying to defend himself and his study and he tries to distance himself from the sophists in that they charge for money.

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In Plato's Gorgias, it is apparent that Socrates has no desire to be a good statesman as it is defined in the eyes of the Athenians. His calculation is that Athenian rhetoricians place no reliance on facts or truth, nor are these their aim. Instead, they rely on the illusion of knowledge, and this morally weakens both themselves and their audiences. It is clear however, that if he wishes, Socrates is able to match most or all of the other statesmen in Athens, as is clearly indicated by his very eloquent speech which ends the dialogue. Additionally, under his own definition of a good statesman, it is evident that Socrates is more than qualified.

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In Plato’s, The Republic, Book I, Socrates tries to prove to Thrasymachus “whether just people also live better and are happier than unjust ones” (352d). He argues that everything has a predisposed proficiency at a function, and that this functions are performed well by the peculiar virtue and badly by means of its vice (353a-353d) . The point of this paper is to present Socrates argument and evaluate it to the best of my ability. This argument can be categorized as an inductive generalization. Socrates states that the function of anything is what it alone can do or what it does best.

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In the Republic, Plato confers with other philosophers about the true definition of justice. Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus relay their theories on justice to Plato, when he inquires as to what justice is. Cephalus believes only speaking the truth and paying one’s debts is the correct definition of justice (The Republic, Book I). However, Plato refutes this with an example of a friend who has lost his wits and would be caused harm by repayment of a debt. This leads to Polemarchus’ view on justice, doing harm to one’s enemies and helping one’s friends.

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Finally, Socrates claims that the unjust man is ignorant, weak and bad. Socrates argument is effective in the way that he does not shatter Thrasymachus’ argument without reason, he is given many examples that change his way of thinking. Thrasymachus is told to put his ‘set in stone’ ideas under different situations, and once he does, he can clearly see that he should not have been so stubborn, as soon as he does so, he can see that his arguments aren’t suited to all situations. By the end of the argument, Thrasymachus isn’t so much debating the definition of justice, as he is defining the required traits to be a ruler of

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Even though Socrates claims to be innocent of the charges brought against him, he is ultimately sentenced to death. After he hears the jury's decision, Socrates is sent to jail to await his execution. Crito arrives before Socrates is scheduled for execution and offers him a chance to escape. Crito believes the jury's decision was unjust. In Crito's eyes, Socrates is innocent and therefore has the right to escape. However, even though Crito believes Socrates has the right to escape, Socrates disagrees with him.

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Since Cephalus is a religious patriarch, his idea of justice results from his fear of what

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