Justice In Plato's The Republic
Plato’s The Republic
By the beginning of Book II of Plato’s The Republic, many questions have been brought upon the table involving the definition of justice. Polemarchus argues that justice is doing good to your friends and harm to your enemies. Thrasymachus argues that justice is the advantage of the stronger. Socrates finds flaws in both of these definitions, but discovers another important question about the nature of justice. Socrates wants to know whether the just life or the unjust life is better, or happier, but all arguments thus far have proved unsatisfactory. Book II aims to further outline this complicated question, and hopefully lead them closer to an answer.
Glaucon isn’t satisfied by the previous explanations on the nature …show more content…
In his first point, Glaucon explains the common conception of justice and it’s origins. Essentially, the natural origin of justice comes from the fact that people like doing injustice, but it is worse to endure justice. Because of this, everyone comes to an agreement not to do injustice so they don’t have to suffer it. Since this story of the origins proves that justice is purely instrumental, if one was to accept this story they would also accept the next two points and, ultimately, accept Thrasymachus’s …show more content…
He illustrates this point by using the example of the ring of Gyges. If two people both had the power to do whatever they wanted with no repercussions, as the ring of Gyges would allow them to do, Glaucon thinks that both would end up following the path of the unjust, and be better and happier for it. The just person wearing the ring could do unjust acts but still keep his reputation for justice. Glaucon says, “No one believes justice to be a good when it is kept private, since, wherever either person thinks he can do injustice with imputiny, he does it” (360c).
This leads to his third point. Glaucon thinks that the completely unjust person is much happier than the just person. The ideal unjust person is able to attain everything they could ever want and need, while being honored and praised by those around him for seeming like a just person. Oppositely, the ideal just person is just but doesn’t care about seeming just, thus leading others to believe he is unjust, possibly for his whole life. When the two are compared side by side, it is clear how the unjust person is happy, but not how the just person is
By the beginning of Book II of Plato’s The Republic, many questions have been brought upon the table involving the definition of justice. Polemarchus argues that justice is doing good to your friends and harm to your enemies. Thrasymachus argues that justice is the advantage of the stronger. Socrates finds flaws in both of these definitions, but discovers another important question about the nature of justice. Socrates wants to know whether the just life or the unjust life is better, or happier, but all arguments thus far have proved unsatisfactory. Book II aims to further outline this complicated question, and hopefully lead them closer to an answer.
Glaucon isn’t satisfied by the previous explanations on the nature …show more content…
In his first point, Glaucon explains the common conception of justice and it’s origins. Essentially, the natural origin of justice comes from the fact that people like doing injustice, but it is worse to endure justice. Because of this, everyone comes to an agreement not to do injustice so they don’t have to suffer it. Since this story of the origins proves that justice is purely instrumental, if one was to accept this story they would also accept the next two points and, ultimately, accept Thrasymachus’s …show more content…
He illustrates this point by using the example of the ring of Gyges. If two people both had the power to do whatever they wanted with no repercussions, as the ring of Gyges would allow them to do, Glaucon thinks that both would end up following the path of the unjust, and be better and happier for it. The just person wearing the ring could do unjust acts but still keep his reputation for justice. Glaucon says, “No one believes justice to be a good when it is kept private, since, wherever either person thinks he can do injustice with imputiny, he does it” (360c).
This leads to his third point. Glaucon thinks that the completely unjust person is much happier than the just person. The ideal unjust person is able to attain everything they could ever want and need, while being honored and praised by those around him for seeming like a just person. Oppositely, the ideal just person is just but doesn’t care about seeming just, thus leading others to believe he is unjust, possibly for his whole life. When the two are compared side by side, it is clear how the unjust person is happy, but not how the just person is