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A Critical Analysis Of Plato's The Republic

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The republic is one of the great valuable work mainly referring to the justice, the rule or order and the character of the righteous and just city-state and the just man written by Plato, who is a philosopher in Classical Greece. It adopts a writing technique of Socratic dialogue, a kind of literary or artistic prose developed in Greece, around 380 B.C. and its contribution proved is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory. The republic concerns for the true and genuine principle and justification in the surrounding community especially for the affairs and changes in human life involving the economics, ethics and moral philosophy, political sociology. Plato stands a point of view that there is no blindness for human …show more content…

In the Book I, the discussion of defining justice is brought out from peers of Socrates: Cephalus defines justice as “giving what is owed and living up to your legal obligations and being honest”. Polemarchus says justive is “the art which gives good to friends and evil to enemies”. Thrasymachus proclaims “justice is nothing else than the interest and advantage or what is beneficial to the stronger. (SparkNotes, 2002) Socrates refuted their opinion or suggestion and disproved them by showing unjust cases. There are three arguments listed by Socrates preferring to the just life than the unjust life. The just man is wise and good but the unjust man is ignorant and bad, injustice offers internal disharmony and incompatibility, virtue is excellence for the just person having a satisfied life. (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2002) Yet Socrates stated no definition of his own and the discussion of justice ended in aporia that a deadlock with no furthering progress. In the following books, Socrates proposes that justice is existed in a city-state as well as community rather than in an individual person. A guardian class is necessary requirement for protecting justice from being attacked by those unjust and righteous persons within a city-state shaped.

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