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Plato's Code Of Justice Analysis

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Canadians live in a society that is plagued with injustice, a society that always puts yourself before the other people. Our courts, which claim to hold to justice, do the opposite, promoting evil and punishing good. But this raise the question, what is justice? And what is the benefit of being just? It is these two questions that Plato tries to answer in his book, “The Republic”.

The quest to define justice leads the main characters of this book in a wild goose chase. It seems that Socrates (the mouthpiece of Plato in this book)easily refutes every attempt made for a definition. At this time the question is also raised, is it even beneficial to be just, because it seems that many unjust men are extremely well off, and the just …show more content…

He starts with the presupposition that every human has three-part to their soul. The first part, like the guardians of the city, is the part of the soul that want to know truth, your reason. The second part to your soul is the desire for honor, like the auxiliaries of the city. And the last part of the soul that Plato puts forward is the part of the soul that goes after evil desires and money, which is linked to the producers of his republic which are the most likely to desire these kind of pleasures. Plato then takes this idea and states that a just man is one who is ruled by the highest part of his soul, reason and the pursuit of truth, and that unjust men are led by honor, money or evil desires. Then through various analogies Plato shows that the only just men are the philosophers because they are the ones who have the best understanding of the forms (ultimate truth).

Finally Plato goes about trying to show why justice is beneficial. He says that each part of the soul has its own perception of pleasure, but the highest part, reason, is the part that will make you really happy, because it is the part of the soul that brings you the closest to the form from for good. Forms are truth, so if you are not reaching for the truth you will not have true happiness, because you are not connecting to the form for

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the Republic, Socrates argues that justice ought to be valued both for its own sake and for the sake of its consequences (358a1–3). His interlocutors Glaucon and Adeimantus have reported a number of arguments to the effect that the value of justice lies purely in the rewards and reputation that are the usual consequence of being seen to be just, and have asked Socrates to say what justice is and to show that justice is always intrinsically better than is acting contrary to justice when doing so would win you more non-moral goods. Glaucon presents these arguments as renewing Thrasymachus’ Book 1 position that justice is “another’s good” (358b–c, cf. 343c), which Thrasymachus had associated with the claim that the rulers in any constitution frame

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In the Republic, Plato gives an extensive theory of justice. Three classes exist, rulers (legislators/deliberates), auxilaries (enforcers), and producers. What God has mixed into one's own soul decides, whether it is gold, silver, or iron/bronze, decides what class one belong's in. Each one of these classes has the potential to best develop a

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he early twentieth century was a wild, wild time – though we can 't immediately think of a time in American history that has been calm. Still, even by rowdy American standards, the first few years of the last century were crazy. Upton Sinclair was lucky enough to ride this wave of national dissatisfaction with the status quo straight to literary success. His novel The Jungle, an exposé of the meatpacking industry, became an enormous bestseller translated into seventeen languages within weeks of its publication in 1906. But while The Jungle has long been associated with food production (and its disgustingness), the book is actually a much broader critique of early twentieth-century business and labor practices in the rapidly growing cities of the United States.

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On one hand, Socrates sees the majority and its opinion as irrelevant to justice, asking, “Why, my dear Crito, should we care about the opinion of the many?”. In fact, he not only argues that the beliefs of the many are unimportant, but goes so far as to imply that the moral code of the majority is patently unjust: “Doing evil in return for evil, which is the morality of the many - is that just or not?”, to which Crito replies: “Not just.” King, on the other hand, contends that the question of whether a law is just is in part determined by the majority-minority dynamic: “An unjust law is a code that a . . . majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself . . . By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself.”

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His statement brings up controversy, making the argument fail to back up its point. Socrates argues that a just soul and a just man will live well, and an unjust one badly. This argument consists of the following: 1. The function of each thing is what it alone can do or what it does better than anything else.

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Plato contests this view on justice because he believes doing harm to anyone would be an injustice. This theory leads to their conclusion the just man is one who is useful. Thrasymachus refers to justice in an egoistical manner, saying “justice is in the interest of the stronger” (The Republic, Book I). He believes injustice is virtuous and wise and justice is vice and ignorance, but Socrates disagrees with this statement as believes the opposing view. As a result of continual rebuttals against their arguments,

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In Book 1 of the republic, by Plato, we are introduced to two central figures in the argument of justice, Socrates and Thrasymachus. Thrasymachus claims that justice is the advantage of the stronger. Socrates then asks if his understanding, that what is beneficial to the stronger is just and must be beneficial to the weaker people, to which Thrasymachus replies that no, this is not so. He explains that justice is that which obtains the advantage of the stronger.

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Socrates bases this view of justice on the worth of living a good life. “And is life worth living for us with that part of us corrupted by unjust actions” (47e) If we corrupt our soul with injustice, our life would not be worth living, therefore one must never commit an injustice. “When one has come to an agreement that is just with someone, one should fulfill it.”(49e) It is this agreement with the Laws that Socrates would be violating, if he were to

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