Glaucon begins with a challenge to Socrates to praise justice instead of condemning it as Thrasymachus has previously done during the discussion. Glaucon poses three claims: the nature of justice is a means between extremes, justice is a necessary evil and is not practiced willingly, and an unjust life is richer than a just life. Glaucon uses the story of the Ring of Gyges to support his claim that an unjust life is richer. The shepherd in the story fulfills all of his desires and receives impunity for his crimes. A just man or unjust man would not differ in behavior with the power of the ring, as man’s goal is to appear just but gain the rewards of injustice. Socrates counters Glaucon’s claims and defines justice in two parts: Justice is harmony. Justice is doing one’s own job. …show more content…
Socrates argues each is made of 3 essential parts; “a rational part, a spirited part and an appetitive or passionate part.” (Pojman & Tramel, 2009, p. 64) These three interrelated parts and the harmony that is produced when each part does what is correct by nature is what Socrates defines as justice. As each part of the soul is to maintain harmony by doing what is correct by nature each man is to maintain harmony by doing what is correct by his nature. “…that is was right for one who is by nature cobbler to cobble and to do nothing else…” (Pojman & Tramel, 2009, p.
The statement made by Socrates “Even were the whole world against me, I had best be in harmony with myself”. Socrates in his mind the whole world that he knew was coming down on him. With the counsel of judges that Socrates
On one hand, Socrates sees the majority and its opinion as irrelevant to justice, asking, “Why, my dear Crito, should we care about the opinion of the many?”. In fact, he not only argues that the beliefs of the many are unimportant, but goes so far as to imply that the moral code of the majority is patently unjust: “Doing evil in return for evil, which is the morality of the many - is that just or not?”, to which Crito replies: “Not just.” King, on the other hand, contends that the question of whether a law is just is in part determined by the majority-minority dynamic: “An unjust law is a code that a . . . majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself . . . By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself.”
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:
Socrates thought that the discussion on justice had finished when he adequately answered Thrasymachus’argument, but Glaucon is not satisfied with the conclusion and adds his opinion to the conversation. Glaucon states that all goods can be separated into three classes: things people desire simply for its own sake, such as physical training and medical treatment; things people desire both for its own sake and because we get something out of it, such as happiness; the last class is the things we desire people like only because we get something out of it such as, knowledge and health. Glaucon wants Socrates to prove that justice falls in the third class because we want something out of it. Glaucon states that most people place justice in the first
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
I think that there is a fallacy of irrelevance. In the book, Socrates sets out to defend the idea that it is always in one’s best interest to be just and to act justly and he suggests that the just person as one who has a balanced soul will lead one to act justly or why mental health amounts to justice. I feel that justice includes actions in relation to others, it includes considerations of other people’s good, and includes strong motivations not to act unjustly. I believe that Socrates’ defense of justice does not include constraining reasons to think that a person with a balanced soul will refrain from acts that are commonly thought to be unjust like theft, murder, and adultery.
It is challenging to lead a private life while truly fighting for justice. A man can fight for justice through examining the greatest issues in human nature that Socrates found essential to the private life. However, this knowledge can have the biggest effect when brought into the public life such as through teachings. These two things can then combine to reflect how the state should be changed. Socrates sometimes crossed this line himself, even if unknowingly.
According to Socrates there are two types of justice, the political justice and the justice of a particular man. As we know, city is bigger than a man. Socrates believes that it is easier to find justice at the political level which means in the city, thus he tries to define a just city from scrap, and will see in which stage justice enters. Also, Socrates tries to find justice in the city before finding justice in the individuals because individuals are not at all self-sufficient. We humans have similar needs such as food, clothing and shelter and in order to accomplish these goals human beings form unions, where each and every individual specializes in a field.
He held that upright life is the only life worth living. To him, justice was a matter of knowledge and hence, a truth aspect. Meanwhile, he honored and acknowledged his duty to obey the Laws of the state. From Socrates' perspective, Laws are absolute.
His statement brings up controversy, making the argument fail to back up its point. Socrates argues that a just soul and a just man will live well, and an unjust one badly. This argument consists of the following: 1. The function of each thing is what it alone can do or what it does better than anything else.
Socrates bases this view of justice on the worth of living a good life. “And is life worth living for us with that part of us corrupted by unjust actions” (47e) If we corrupt our soul with injustice, our life would not be worth living, therefore one must never commit an injustice. “When one has come to an agreement that is just with someone, one should fulfill it.”(49e) It is this agreement with the Laws that Socrates would be violating, if he were to
Finally, Socrates claims that the unjust man is ignorant, weak and bad. Socrates argument is effective in the way that he does not shatter Thrasymachus’ argument without reason, he is given many examples that change his way of thinking. Thrasymachus is told to put his ‘set in stone’ ideas under different situations, and once he does, he can clearly see that he should not have been so stubborn, as soon as he does so, he can see that his arguments aren’t suited to all situations. By the end of the argument, Thrasymachus isn’t so much debating the definition of justice, as he is defining the required traits to be a ruler of
What is justice? This is the crucial question that Plato attempts to answer in his dialogue, The Republic. He conjures up an allegory that justice can be found in a person, and a person can represent a city. Thus, his entire dialogue focuses on this ‘just’ city and the mechanics of how the city would operate. His dialogue covers a myriad of topics about justice in addition to the human soul, politics, goodness and truth.
1 What is the moral of Plato’s story of the Ring of Gyges? Is he correct in his basic assumption? The moral of Plato’s story is that when a person has the opportunity to be unjust they will be unjust. If there were no laws people would act in unjust ways and I would tend to agree with this train of thought.
In Book IV of Plato’s Republic, Socrates and his peers come to the conclusion that a city is going to need people who have an understanding of what justice should be. Socrates at the end of Book IV can make the difference between individual, political, and social justice. He knows that individual and political justice is so much in common because they both weigh in heavy on truth, honor, and appetitive soul. That appetitive soul is an element that helps the secure the just community with love and support.