Plato's Moral Theory

When Plato’s Republic was introduced in my coursework, I approached this book just like other books that I have read. But the Republic is not written like a typical textbook, but rather, like a living conversation. And like most conversations, it develops important ideas to improve our lives. As you read this book, you notice a main idea that Plato is trying to convey: why a person should bother to be good. But in order to be good, the Republic opens with asking the reader what is justice. Plato provides us with many answers, but he doesn’t frame those answers in terms that we would expect. Instead, Plato frames the answer in terms of how an individual should structure the different parts of his mind in order to become a just person and then enact that justice in the outside world. This paper delves into several ideas that provide a simplified outline of how to become a moral person.

The Republic brings many concepts to light, but the major intent of the book is to articulate an extended definition of justice or morality and how it fulfills one’s life as a human being. Plato asserts that if humans are to live an ethical life they must do so as citizens of a just and rational state. Plato expresses that the individual and the state must share the same principles of justice. In a state, different classes work together for the good of the state for all citizens. Likewise, within the individual, the different parts have to work together for the overall good of the individual. Plato believes that it is the soul which gives an individual the ability to be a just person. It is through the soul that one makes decisions, and making decisions is the most important activity of human beings. But in order to make just decisions we have to obtain knowledge as a foundation. Knowledge is what allows humans to formulate moral decisions, not only for themselves but for the good of society. To achieve this state, Plato begins with the soul. The soul is the