What Does It Mean To Be Just By Plato

Plato does a fantastic job making you think deeply about everyday concepts we overlook. Throughout The Republic, Plato takes the simple thought of “What does it mean to be just?” and allows some characters to give their opinion, only to have Socrates contradict their ideas. It will take five books of The Republic for Socrates to finally give an answer to this question. This is just one of the examples where Plato has made readers change their way of thinking for hundreds of years. Anything ever said or recorded by philosophers that have come after Plato can be directly related to Plato. Philosophers have taken one of Plato's ideas and used it as inspiration to their ideas. According to Biography.com “Plato's work on the use of reason

Plato uses many pyramid analogies that were separated in three parts. He describes and ideal state, person and ruler using a three part pyramid. When discussing the soul in book five, Plato says it is made up of reason, emotion, and desires. The famous philosopher puts reason at the top because he believes that without reason, the soul will be corrupted by emotions and desire. Plato states, “A man is wise if he has wisdom in the reasoning part of his mind. I disagree, because without emotions or desire, there is no need for reason. If one does not have emotion, they are “boring” and unapproachable. When relating the soul to the ideal leader, having more reason may be important, but a persons desire and emotions make them who they are. Aristotle implied that soul is, “A particular kind of nature, a principal that accounts for change and rest in the particular case of living bodies” according to the Encyclopedia of

When arguing about what kind of person generally rules a city, Throsymachus says that the man with the most money rules. Socrates quickly denies this statement saying only wise men rule. Looking back in history, many countries have had a ruler that was only put in charge because of their wealth. Now, when you hear the statement, “might is right”, it does not mean that the biggest and strongest man will rule, but the man “with the biggest gun.” The man with the biggest gun may not know how to use the gun necessarily, but he had the money to purchase the big gun. Countless countries have been run by rulers that had no discipline, courage, or wisdom, they just had a high enough number of currency in their bank account. In book one of The Republic Throsymachus states, “I declare justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger”. In his book titled, Might is Right, Ragnar Redbeard states, Government is founded on property; property is founded on conquest; conquest is found on power; all power is founded on brain and brawn.” According to the Merrium-Webster Dictionary, brawn is “the physical strength in contrast to