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Plato's Republic: Just Or Unjust?

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Plato's Republic is centered on one simple question: is it always better to be just than unjust? This is something that Socrates addresses both in terms of political communities and the individual person. Plato argues that being just is advantageous to the individual independent of any societal benefits that the individual may incur in virtue of being just. I feel as if Plato’s argument is problematic. There are not enough compelling reasons to make this argument. I believe that
Plato believes that people are inherently good and they will do what is morally right and just for society. They will earn their right to power and ensure fairness for all to prevent the tyrants from trying to take control. Plato mentions three main arguments regarding …show more content…

I think that there is a fallacy of irrelevance. In the book, Socrates sets out to defend the idea that it is always in one’s best interest to be just and to act justly and he suggests that the just person as one who has a balanced soul will lead one to act justly or why mental health amounts to justice. I feel that justice includes actions in relation to others, it includes considerations of other people’s good, and includes strong motivations not to act unjustly. I believe that Socrates’ defense of justice does not include constraining reasons to think that a person with a balanced soul will refrain from acts that are commonly thought to be unjust like theft, murder, and adultery. Thus, Plato presents Socrates defending mental health rather than …show more content…

The just person’s soul entails motive for certain kinds of objects the most important of which is knowledge. Socrates describes the hardship and extreme effort required to gain knowledge of the forms and the form of the good, thus the just person will seek learning and not spend time to take care of the satisfaction of desires that typically lead to unjust actions. This approach to unite the gap between a just soul and just actions may have some drawbacks. One negative aspect may be that several unjust actions may be motivated by desires that are compatible with the desire for knowledge. For example, why wouldn’t a person with a great fascination for knowledge steal a book if it would contribute to their

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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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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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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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Knowledge is both good and clever, and per Socrates, because both knowledge and justice are the same in one regard they are the same in being both good and clever. Though Socrates and Thrasymachus agree to this it can be stated that the division fallacy and the no-sequitur fallacies were made. By closing that what’s right about one part of Socrates argument, it must be applied to all that are of the like. Moreover, though its agreed that both the premises are true, the conclusion does not necessarily follow. Applying these formal logic, it is affirmed that Socrates’ argument for justice being wiser than injustice is

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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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Also through the conversation he had with Glaucon and Adeimantus, they both accept Socrates’ assumptions about the nature and aids of justice at the end of Book IV. Which this turn meant they never responded to the argument and ignore they cue to refute Socrates’ claim on justice which can cause the argument to be misleading because of their absence in questioning his argument. Their failure to questions Socrates’ assumption may have contain some drawback to their search of such justice. Socrates’ attempts to define the word justice it meet with a roadblock because they it is not possible to obtain through such needs. However, he may have mentioned the step to obtaining such justice, but evidently they can also downfall back to where they started form.

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There are instances that Socrates describes the actions that a just person will or would not do. This list of the do’s and don’ts of a just individual is long and at times seems to be an incoherent jumble of individual thoughts that may not fit together as good as Socrates may have thought or hoped. Socrates explains that there is no way that an unjust act will make the actor of the unjust act better off. This seems like a specifically wrong in the sense that I can commit fraud and steal millions of dollars. The act itself is unjust, but it seems that I am in a better position than before preforming the unjust act.

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In the Apology, the trial of Socrates brings about questions regarding the legitimacy of god(s) and the corruption in educating the youth. As the speaker for his own defense, Socrates understands that the only mode of proving his innocence is through forward and honest speech to highlight his own position of wisdom and his impact on the people around him. Although Socrates is ultimately found guilty, he tells the jurymen to “keep this one truth in mind, that a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death…”1 I argue that the goodness in Socrates is highlighted by his ignorance towards the welfare of his own being. Socrates did not intentionally choose nor train for the life he was given. It is under these circumstances that he was found charged with worshipping other gods and corrupting the youth, to which the townspeople did not

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What is justice? This is the crucial question that Plato attempts to answer in his dialogue, The Republic. He conjures up an allegory that justice can be found in a person, and a person can represent a city. Thus, his entire dialogue focuses on this ‘just’ city and the mechanics of how the city would operate. His dialogue covers a myriad of topics about justice in addition to the human soul, politics, goodness and truth.

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Little Johnny runs up to his parents going a hundred miles an hour. He rambles off a variety of questions as his curiosity of the world overcomes him. He wants to know how things work and why they function that way. In a way, little Johnny could be compared to Plato. However, Plato goes beyond the superficial questions into deep, philosophical thinking.

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This is similar to a thief character from Hollywood that gets admiration from the audience because the cool scoundrel does not care if they get in trouble. Also, the cool scoundrel ends up benefiting more from being a criminal. Nevertheless, this example should be viewed as an outlier or even fits the mold of the person’s soul having a sort of “cancer”. Not many people are getting praise for being a criminal in reality and not very many fit the frame of the cool scoundrel. Consequently, Socrates explanation of what justice is more convincing than

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In “Plato’s Gorgias” Socrates debates with fellow philosophers, Polus, Callicles, Chaerephon and Gorgias, of ancient Greece over rhetoric, justice, and power. During these debates, Socrates makes a claim to Polus that it is better to suffer injustices rather than to commit injustice because the positive and negative consequences that come along with committing and suffering injustices. This claim by Socrates that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit injustice is pretty easy to comprehend once all the parts are analyzed. At first, this idea seems crazy that it is actually beneficial to suffer injustice and wrong-doing.

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