Justice is the underlining truth in the Republic of Plato. However the question is, is Plato’s idea of a just society in fact the “truth”? Socrates spent a great deal of his life seeking out the “truth” and definitions of question that would universally answer the notion of right and wrong; virtuous and immoral; just and unjust. Even after his exhausted survey for absolute truth, he never was able to obtain an absolute answer. He could not find a single definition to the questions that are the basis of any civilized society’s moral belief. His quest was abruptly ended because of an unjust decision by a supposedly just society. Now a serious predicament has emerged, and thus fuels the philosophical fury that Plato will unleash on the so-called just Athenian democratic system. Consequently, Plato takes the role of a political architect and orchestrates, in great detail, an accurately just political system. A system that claims to appropriately coordinate the human demographic to the point where it is perfectly objective. However, the ideal constitution Plato proposes to ward off the slide into democracy and despotism is fraught with theoretical problems that make it thoroughly unjust and virtually incapabl
Plato’s conceptions of justice are very specific. He understands that an authentically just polis requires a separation of duty. Everyone has a certain responsibility to their social order, and when they proceed outside of the framework of their communal obligations, this causes the overall community to become unjust. With this Plato establishes how the Athenian democracy continuously exhibits injustice. When not only is every citizen invited, but they also are encouraged to participate in the decision making process to arbitrate what is good for their state. In Plato’s eyes this is detrimental to the polis and it is appealing to the irrational nature of man to put forth their own interest disguised as the common aggregate interest of the general public.
“…I remember we thought they should have no property in the ordinary sense, but, as Guardians in training for war, they should receive as wages from the other citizens enough to keep them for the year while they fulfilled their duty of watching over community, themselves included.”
“So the order of our commonwealth will be perfectly regulated only when it is watched over by a Guardian who does possess this knowledge.” (R, p. 215-216)
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