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Competing Views On Justice

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15 views

Competing Views On Justice

Uploaded by

ncj2p4rxjp
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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COMPETING VIEWS ON JUSTICE.

Plato’s “Republic” searches for the meaning of justice and lines out the various
understandings of justice by Plato and other characters; Socrates, Cephalus, Polemarchus,
Thracymarchus, Glaucon and Adeimantus. The conversation was held in the house of Cephalus
as they had all met up in his house on a feast-day to honor the Thracian goddess,Bendis. It is
called “Repulic” because it was deduced from the Greek word ‘polite’ which refers to the affairs
of the city-state.
Ceohalus was an old, wealthy and retired merchant who was close to his death. It is believed
that people close to death have a different outlook on life as a whole. Cephalus defined ‘justice’
as “honesty in word and deed”. He understood justice as being truthful always, keeping
promises and repaying ones debts, this understanding was then shown to not hold enough water
because there are times where not sharing the truth leads to the betterment of everyone, making
that just.
Polemarchus, the son of old man, Cephalus then assists his dad by saying that justice means
helping friends and harming enemies. Socrates then criticizes this idea of justice by saying that
this could mean anyone strong enough to help his friends and harm enemies is then seen as a just
man but that shouldn’t be the case because what if that strong man is a thief even? Does that still
make him a just man? Also, enemies could feign friendship, placing them out of harm’s way.
Another definition of ‘justice’ was given by Thracymarchus who believed that justice is the
interest of the stronger people or person being imposed on the weak. He then delves deeper and
says that he is not just referring to physical strength but that of the mind and with skills.To him,
justice is when the powerful rule to their advantage, he adds that individuals are made to follow
laws not out of their own will but from fear of being punished. Socrates also criticizes this by
saying that these people are mostly corrupted y the power itself making it a weak definition for
justice.
Plato’s older brother, Glaucoma then opts into the conversation and defines justice as what
the community decides to call it. He goes on to speak of the story of the magic ring of Gyges; a
ring which has the ability to make a man invisible, he adds that no one, if given this would treat
his fellow person justly, thus justice must be a matter of community interest.
One more brother, Adeimantus then adds to his brother’s point against Thracymarchus by
asking if the just man would find support justice if injustice was better for him.
Personally, part of Thracymarchus’ understanding of justice resonates well with me because
in contemporary times, as much as we would not like to say, our leaders rule to their advantage.
Whatever is done is what benefits them and I speak in terms of Ghana. As a ‘democratic’
country, we are made to believe we have the power by being given a very minute portion of our
needs as a country when more could be done. The needs of the ruling class however, are met or
even over served with little to no hindrance. Those in power have the advantage weaker ones can
merely dream of. What they say is just is what is just whether we like it or not, just as
Thracymarchus contended but that is not how it should be, I believe Glaucon’s definition, even if
a bit too hollow, is a fair enough representation of what justice should be, in my opinion.

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