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The Role Of Justice In Plato's The Republic

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Justice in opposite points of view Plato tries to describe what justice is in reality by the different characters ' points of view in his book “The Republic”. In “The Republic” the characters, such Socrates, Thrasymachus, Glaucon, Cephalus, Adeimantus, Polemarchus give their opinion about justice. The people in the Just city are divided into 3 groups: gold, silver and bronze that means ruler part, guardian part and labor part of citizens. Thrasymachus says that justice is the advantage of the stronger, but Socrates argues that justice is being honest and do own role in society. Firstly, the dialogue between Socrates and Thrasymachus starts with the question that justice is the interest of the stronger or not. For this Thrasymachus says: “…in all states there is the same principle of justice, which is the interest of the government; and as the government must be supposed to have power, the only reasonable conclusion is, that everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger.” (Plato, The Republic, book I, page 16) In this point, Socrates gets an idea that the government, the ruler or gold …show more content…

Socrates’s point of view compared the art with justice. “For every art remains pure and faultless while remaining true-- that is to say, while perfect and unimpaired (p.20).” “Then, I said, no science or art considers or enjoins the interest of the stronger or superior, but only the interest of the subject and weaker?” (p.21) If every person knows own art perfectly, no one will mistake, and it is a clear justice. Oppositely, not everyone is a master in one’s duty, and not everyone likes the place where he/she is. Socrates doesn’t answer to this question and doesn’t think. If every master does one’s duty perfectly, it is just relating to the subject in the art, but not for oneself. May be the person doing perfect work cannot get good

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When someone performs a task efficiently, satisfaction is there, either it was an unjust task or a just one. The example of the pruning knife really made a mark in my brain, yes the pruning knife is made for pruning, but a knife can complete the task even though it is not its peculiar virtue. Socrates also gave a few examples and then automatically claimed that his argument worked for all things. I think that his conclusion is true in a sense, but to fully prove his conclusion his premises had to have more examples that could apply to everything as he

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He uses the example of ruling a city, where a government would change the rules and laws to best suit them, and as the rules are followed by those who act justly, the just would be acting in the favour of the stronger. Socrates objects to this and claims that humans will make mistake, as that is part of being human, and may

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Therefore, since Athens has a part to play in corrupting Socrates’s life as well as his mistaken visual of the truth, Socrates must understand that by obeying the state, he has done injustice to his soul for it will not be in true harmony. Furthermore he will be doing an injustice to the state because Plato would have established that, objectively, Athens laws are unjust and even if Socrates thinks that they are just, it is only because Socrates has been corrupted by

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The passage written by Plato goes in to great detail of how Socrates defends his position and how Glaucon defends his position as well but then leaves the reader to formulate his own opinion. With both Socrates’ position and as well as Glaucons, it is clear to see that Glaucon has the more rational reasoning within the debate of who’s happier, the just or unjust person. In Plato’s writing, The Republic, Glaucon challenge Socrates to describe justice and to give reasoning to why acting justly should be believed to be in anyone's self-interest. Glaucon claims that all goods can be distributed into three classes:

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aligns with reason and resists the desires of the appetite. It is in this part of the soul where the courage to be good is found. In the unjust soul, the spirit ignores reason and instead aligns with the appetitive desires, manifesting as the demand for the pleasures of the body. Plato asserts that the wise and just soul allows reason to govern the other parts, while the unwise and unjust soul allows conflict between the parts.12 Just as there is the appetitive part of the soul—the largest part of the soul—there is the productive class, or the workers, who have souls of bronze and account for the largest part of the population.13 This class includes the general population of laborers, plumbers, masons, carpenters, merchants, and farmers.

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He claims that this is how he has been able to live a long life in Athens and that he never meant any harm to the state. Socrates believes that for

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