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Plato #1 – Justice
1. Historical background
Athenian at a time when Athens was in decline but had been the greatest Greek city state in
military force and culture. Wrote while and after Athens had disastrously lost a long war with
Sparta, which caused political turmoil.
2. The ideas against which Plato reacted: relativism and immoralism, as he saw it, of Sophists.
A: Contact with other cultures made Greeks realize there was an alternative.
B: The Sophists’ distinction between nature and convention. Relativism.
C: For some – not all – Sophists, what was natural was wanting and taking more. Antiphon:
justice is something to practise only if being watched. Immoralism.
3. The Republic
Its subjects are: justice – what it is and why we should be just; the ideal organization of the
state; education; the best way of life; and metaphysics (what things exist).
Most of what Plato wrote, including The Republic is in dialogue. He uses real people (and
sometimes their real views) in these dialogues.
4. The main focus of today: Justice, and why be just. Distinction:
Content of justice. i.e. what is justice, what does it require?
Motivation to be just. Why should we be just? This is the organizing question of The Republic.
Socrates\Plato’s claim to Glaucon:
Justice + disbenefits of appearing unjust is better for someone than injustice + benefit of
appearing just.
This is a difficult claim to defend.
5. Plato’s first move is to draw an analogy between the individual soul and the city.
The just city has Guardians, who rule; Auxiliaries (soldiers), who fight; artisans, who make
things.
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The just soul has reason which rules; spirit e.g. anger which motives to act on reason; and
desire, meaning appetites such as hunger, sex, subordinate to reason.
The unjust city and the unjust soul are ones not ordered properly.
6. The form of the Good. Justice has an ideal form.
The Theory of Forms gives a response to relativists. Nomos might be a human creation but it
can more or less correspond to the ideal form of the good.
Beliefs about justice could therefore be better or worse, closer to knowledge or further away.
Knowledge is not just what people happen to think.
The theory of forms also gives the main answer to Glaucon viz. to show the benefits of justice.
The Myth of the Cave. This myth is supposed to show that the trappings of injustice are not
worth the same as genuine knowledge, and genuine knowledge of the good would motivate
people to be just.