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Plato

In Plato's Republic, the discussion centers around the nature of justice and its implications for individuals and society. Characters like Socrates, Glaucon, and Thrasymachus debate whether justice is inherently good or merely advantageous, with Socrates arguing that true happiness comes from living a virtuous life. The dialogue explores the motivations for ethical behavior and the distinction between appearance and reality in justice.

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11 views

Plato

In Plato's Republic, the discussion centers around the nature of justice and its implications for individuals and society. Characters like Socrates, Glaucon, and Thrasymachus debate whether justice is inherently good or merely advantageous, with Socrates arguing that true happiness comes from living a virtuous life. The dialogue explores the motivations for ethical behavior and the distinction between appearance and reality in justice.

Uploaded by

adrodriguez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Plato’s Republic

The Republic
Setting: Piraeus; House of Polemarchus
Characters:

Socrates
Glaucon
Adeimantus
Polemarchus
Cephalus
Thrasymachus
Book I
What is money good for?

Cephalus: Money is good because it helps you to be a better person.


It’s easier to tell the truth and pay your debts.

Socrates: But what if you have a friend who asked you to keep a
weapon then becomes insane and comes back and asks for it? Do we
owe to return the weapon?

Polemarchus: Give people what they owed. Benefit to our friends and
harm to our enemies.
Socrates: But people make mistakes as to who are friends and
enemies.

Polemarchus: Good things to good people, and bad things to bad


people.

Socrates: But bad people are already bad but shouldn’t we do good to
them so they can better? Justice to everybody benefits everyone.

Thrasymachus: Justice is the advantage of the stronger. Those who


have power defines what justice is.
Socrates: No knowledge seeks what is advantageous to itself, it seeks
what is best for the weaker object that is subject to it. A sea captain
seeks whatever is beneficial to his sailors, and a ruler seeks what is
beneficial for his subjects.

Thrasymachus: Tyrants, the most unjust, are the happiest and richest
because of their tyranny. Victims of tyranny, those most unwilling to do
injustice, are the most wretched. Men oppose injustice because they
are afraid of being harmed by it, not because they fear engaging in it.
Socrates: Good men rule out of fear of a bad ruler being forced
upon them.

Thrasymachus: Injustice is not only profitable but also virtuous.

Socrates: An unjust city ruled by unjust men; an unjust individual is


always in constant state of unrest, dissatisfied, and an enemy to
himself.

Socrates: Does a just man have a happier life than the unjust?
Book II
What motivates us to behave ethically?

Glaucon: Is justice good for its own sake or for its


consequences?

Socrates: Both. To be truly happy is to live a virtuous


life and joy cannot be wrested from a just man.

Glaucon: Ring of Gyges. If we were shielded from


consequences of our own actions, how would that
change the way we would act?
Glaucon: The just appears unjust, the unjust appears as just.

Adeimantus: Only the appearance of justice is praised. Justice is a


form of injustice as people only act justly because they know they will
get a good reputation, or be rewarded by the gods in the afterlife.

Socrates is proposing to argue from the general, the justice of the city
or group, to the particular, the concept of justice and the individual.

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