Plato tries to define justice by implementing the Socratic method of oral teaching through dialogue. He uses Socrates as the protagonist who poses the question: What is justice? Socrates then proceeds to eliminate his opponents by attacking the weaknesses and exposing the limitations of their arguments. By refuting the flawed logic of his opponents, Socrates shows what is not justice.

Plato assigns characters to Socrates’ dialogue partners who argue differing opinions. The first is Cephalus, who states that justice is to return what you have taken. The main critique of Cephalus’ argument is that his proposal is instrumental not intrinsic. The next chall

Plato’s model for the ideal city is a society in which people perform the task that is best suited to them. Plato organizes people into three categories. The philosopher kings would be the elite ruling class. He expresses the superiority of the philosopher kings through the Allegory of the Cave. According to Plato, philosophers were the only ones who had transcended from the dark cave of ignorance and had broken free of the shackles of greed and self-interest. Since these philosophers were the only ones who were able to see light of truth, it was in the best interest of society for these philosophers to become philosopher kings as the noble and virtuous leaders of society. These philosopher kings would be taken away from their families and endure years of rigorous training. As the rulers of the community, they would instill virtue among the public and the state would operate in a just manner. The next social class of the Guardians would be less educated and act as the protectors of the society. They would fight and represent courage. The Aristians would make up the vast majority of society and produce the goods. Plato suggests that the city should control the population through a harsh system of eugenics to insure that the people are assigned to roles that are appropriate to their worth and to sustain these class distinctions.

The question at the center of Plato’s The Republic is whether it is better to live justly or unjustly. To answer this question Plato constructs the perfectly just city that initially seems like a wonderful approach. However, there are problems with this ideal city. In his book, The Politics, Aristotle recognizes some of these weaknesses and suggests a better regime. Although Plato and Aristotle arrive at different outcomes for the best political system

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