Tuesday January, 17

Justice - the advantage of the stronger revised by thrasymachus - original by head (stronger =
ruling class)
helping friends harming enemies - clearacus revision of simonities - justice is what each is owed
the craft of sailing a shift is to benefit the passengers not the captain - similar to politics, benefit
the citizens

343b
thrasymachus is attacking socrates person through fallacy rather than coming with a proper
debate. (cheating)
Politicians are like shepherds - grow up socrates
A person of great power outdoes everyone else (outdoing is an important notion in the reminder
of the republic. cause of injustice - wanting more than you need, greedy, outdo others.
Thrasymachus says politicians use their power to exploit others - advantage of the ruling class

conventionalism - justice just takes place inside human societies - whatever the ruling class
says in each society
immoralism - you think justice is a good thing but the truth is that really smart and excellent
people are unjust

injustice is profitable - Thrasymachus

by analogy - good politicians aren’t trying to outdo others, they are trying to share that equal
greatness and goodness.

Thrasymachus begins losing the argument - he begins sweating, at stake for thrasymachus is
his way of life. If he cannot justify his way of life
Hes using his school in the argument, he’s advertising his school which teaches you how to be a
sweet talker and win arguments. However he is losing and will lose business

Socrates - wonders if a band of unjust gangsters could get anything done. Could you do
something effectively if you are unjust against your own resources (your group - honor among
thieves). Same with you and your soul Socrates suggests - if your going through this internal
conflict through injust souls your not going to achieve your goals

CONTINUE NOTEBOOK NOTES FROM HERE

You cannot figure out the function of something without knowing the virtue (knife- virtue
sharpness- function- cutting)
Living is a function of a soul, virtue of a soul is justice, together you live well
In order for a human to live well, they need to be just - Socrates
Socrates concludes book one by saying they did a terrible job, there was no discipline in this
conversation
The first question beginning the dialog is “what is justice”
in the argument a second question came up “unjust is profitable - is a just life happier?”
What is x? (justice) - looking for the esscence (a socratic question)
We have to answer “what are the properties of x?” before we can answer the first question
Answer those before answering whether justice makes him happy or not

BOOK TWO
Glaucon (Socrates brother) takes the roll of Thrasymachus in what follows. While
Thrasymachus stays and is curious - Socrates and him come to an understanding.
Glaucon is more Disciplined but has the same bleak argument as Thrasymachus.
Courage is one of the cardinal 3 virtues discussed in the republic (in book 3) we here courage is
part of the soul (spiritual soul)

Cephalls- represents appetite (undisciplined soul)

357d
there is one kind of good that we welcome for its own sake - not for its consequences (joy)
enjoyable for both its own sake and what comes (health) opposite you want (medicine) for its
consequences
Socrates would place justice right in the middle for both - Glaucon says I want to hear justice
praised by itself even though no one wants to be just.
Glaucons argument now has 3 parts
Those who lack the power to do justice and avoid suffering it and agree to neither to do injustice
nor to suffer it. As a result they begin to make laws and covenants.
We are born into a law observing society - he’s explaining the justification of such society - fear
of injustice
Mutually agree to limit freedom by meeting in the middle - you trade some of your freedom and
get security in return.
Naturally your going to want to exploit others for greed - natural human nature

GYGES OF LYDIA
washing his sheep and an earthquake opened the earth - inside was a giant bronze horse, in
the windows was a giant human being wearing a giant golden ring
He takes the ring and puts it on his own finger leaves, as he turns the ring he disappears and
reappears. The first thing he thinks to use the ring for is to kill the king and marry the queen.
The ring gives greed and gluttony to the person using it - corrupts the wearer. Plato's ring makes
you invisible but doesn’t corrupt you, according to him it doesn’t corrupt you, it just reveals you
are already bad. All the ring shows the so-called just person is injust. He uses this to prove that
no one is ever willingly just but only when compelled to be.
Invisibility (the ring) in this scenario represents - the last human on earth - outside the
constraints of society - there be no witnesses for your actions - the ring suggests the freedom of
consequences.

Complete injustice - people with dictatorial control but have a reputation for being a super good.
By contrast, give the just person and unfair reputation, unjust. They’ll be tortured. The happiest
life is a super gangster with a just reputation.

Now Socrates must argue the just person being tortured is happier than the unjust super
gangster. We could say even if they are in physical pain but the psychological happiness would
overpower such pain - opposite the super gangster has everything yet feels bad about it
everyday (we have to delicately assume the unjust person has a conscience). True harm is
harm to someone's soul.

Argued against Socrates - society wants us to live the opposite that socrates is suggesting.
Socrates then says Glaucon must be affected by the divine if he isn’t convince. He believes he
isn’t convinced by his own words. Socrates suggest we take the justice in the soul and build and
analogous city with the same structure (3 parts)
The origin of a city is human need.
PRINCIPLE OF SPECIALIZATION - if a person specializes in there own vocations