... nature of justice and it's relation to human existence. Book I of the "republic- contains a critical examination of the nature and virtue of justice. Socrates engages in a dialectic with Thrasymachus, Polemarchus and Cephalus, a method which leads to the asking and answering of questions which directs to a logical refutation ... and thus leading to a convincing argument of the true nature of justice. Socrates attempts to show that certain beliefs and attitudes of justice and its nature are inadequate or inconsistent, and present a way in which those ... of life, Cephalus told, the combi...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... who love knowledge are philosophers. Therefore, "to become a good guardian, a man must be by nature fast, strong, and a spirited philosopher" (376e). Socrates illustrates how they will train the guarders of the city; "gymnastics for the body and poetry for the soul" (376e). Beginning with children's stories that; ... from courage. "Power to preserve under all circumstances the right, lawful opinion of what is and is not to be feared"(430b), Socrates will say that the people in the city who exhibit this behavior are the guardians. Another essential characteristic of the guarders includes...

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• Grade Level: High School

... about old age and money and the positives and negatives associated with both. This in turn leads to the topic of fairness and justice. Socrates begins to question Cephalus, Polemarchus" father who believes he understands the meaning of justice. Cephalus explains that justice is simply, "speaking the ... truth and giving back what one takes." (331 C) Whether this is the correct definition of justice or not, Socrates, through a series of questions refutes Cephalus" statement saying that "if someone asserts that it's just to give what is owed to each man ... man then must be stronger becaus...

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... tougher, the fact remains that to commit injustice is in every case bad and dihonourable for the person who does it" (49b). And as Socrates also says, to live an honorable and just life (which he has already said is the only life worth living) one must never commit an ... been consummated upon them. Furthermore, Crito agrees that neither shall a man commit an injury on another, even if they have been injured themselves (49c). Socrates continues by proposing that "Both in war and in the lawcourts and everywhere else you must do whatever your city and your country commands, or else ... Whi...

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... or her convinced conscience? Each of these situations surface in the works of two ancient Greek writers. In Plato's Apology and Crito, through critical reasoning, Socrates acknowledges the word of the law. In contrast, Sophocles" play Antigone makes the point that justice should be put ahead of the law, otherwise more ... since his mother and father married through it. Furthermore, the city provided him with his education in the arts and in physical culture. Being so, Socrates claims to be born, nurtured and educated by the city, and thus is its offspring and servant. Accordingly, the sta...

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... home often wandering through the agora (an Ancient Greek market place) and discussing his ideas with students, friends and other people he found in the street. Socrates believed in questioning people and the way they ran their lives, claiming that "the unexamined life, for a human being, is not worth living". His ... large bald spot. This added to the people of the times" fascination towards him. However in the year of 399 BC charges were brought against Socrates claiming that he was guilty of not believing in the gods that the people of the time believed in, introducing new religious bel...

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... by eliminating jealousy and inequality in the social classes, and adding a greater level of knowledge and understanding in the ruling class. The first wave Socrates discusses is that of common wives and children. The goal of the first wave is to promote unity in the city as a whole. The ... the obvious-eliminating inequality, but it also gives everyone a roll and removes the uncomfortably of working along side someone on the opposite gender. Socrates believed that everyone was equal in the guardian class although he addressed the fact that in ancient Greece it was believed that men would ...

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... obedience, he would be neither obeying them nor persuading them to change their decision if they are at fault. I would agree with these accounts because like Socrates said earlier in the play, the laws that are standing allowed his parents to marry and have him, plus raise him in a quality way, and then ... he would bring up his point that not all laws are "just" laws. He believes that there are two types of laws, just and unjust. He, like Socrates, feels that there is a moral obligation to obeying just laws. However, he also believes that people have a moral obligation to disobey unjust ...

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... , there is any general human being as such. Only by knowing what this is can we hope to live rightly: "therefore virtue is knowledge. Socrates laid no claim to this knowledge. His advantage lay only in awareness of his ignorance. He wished to persuade men to seek it with him, ... inductive, and its outcome was to reduce all virtues, including justice, to an understanding of the true nature of good and evil. Armed with this understanding, Socrates believed, men would automatically choose the right: "No one errs voluntary." His constant exhortation was to "care for the soul" (psyche), and ...

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Socrates goes about figuring out what justice is for an individual by first finding out what is justice in the city. He starts with wisdom because that is what seemed odd ... for ruling the city, it has to have something that is of the rarest in the city; the least numerous that could be found in the city. This is how Socrates comes up with first portion of virtue. He then realizes that for there to be a city, there has to be some sort of preservation of the belief of the sort ... there is such preservation in a city, then the citizens will be well prepared to accept and learn any necessary...

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Answer to Socrates When faced with the question of whether one should be loyal to a family member or obey the laws of the land I believe that it is more important to follow the ... with the law. In many cases it simply becomes the decision of the individual to decide if the offense was great enough to deserve punishment. Take for example the question Socrates was faced with when a boy asked him if he should turn his father in for murder. This is where blood ties should be discounted. Murder is a serious offense, and without ... ...

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... God only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing. (Plato p8)." At first, Socrates doesn't perceive of himself as being incredibly wise, but also realizes that most of the people who were considered to be the great minds of Athens are, ... life. In other words, there is a difference in the types of justices that are being affected in the Apology and the Crito. In the Apology, Socrates claims that he will go against the law if the law requires him to stop his philosophical teachings. He believes that obeying the law will cause him ......

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• Grade Level: High School

... This is a point Thrasymachus failed to see, and thus his argument was too unilateral. After Thrasymachus's defeat, Glaucon steps up to challenge Socrates. Glaucon's first argument is that doing injustice and not being punished for it is much more pleasurable than suffering injustice at the hands of ... Justice finds its place in these three principles because they are the common traits of the State, which all mankinds should respect and follow. Socrates continues his argument by generally stating throughout a long river of metaphors, symbols, and great understanding, that just men apprec...

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... to show that justice is truly the harmony between the three stages of the city and soul in the human body. Plato introduces the idea of the happiness. Socrates says, " in establishing our city, we aren't aiming to make any one group outstanding happy but to make the whole city so, as far as possible ... 420b). I agree that in order to examine one thing that is difficult to comprehend, it is wise to look on a larger scale. In this case, Socrates had to examine the difference of a whole city and other concepts of cities in order to determine justice in the world and inner soul. In order ...

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... would be to create a city that has three classes of people. The three classes are the guardians (rulers), guardians (auxiliaries), and producers (everybody else). Socrates feels that in order for this city to work the best people, or golden people, would be on top as rulers. Then the auxiliary guardians/soldiers, or ... is the way this society is run, they are born into different classes and metals, and they cannot change that. The second noble falsehood Socrates explains is that the people will think that they all have equal opportunity to mate and produce offspring, when in actuality t...

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... which means ''people'' and a verb, kratein, which means ''to rule,'' Its basic meaning is ''government by the people" or "rule by the ruled.'' Socrates quest for justice was written in the form of a dialogue by his student Plato, in Plato's Republic. Plato believed the Athenian democracy was on the verge ... Socrate's death. This encouraged him to write the Republic. In Plato's ideal society justice ruled. What is Justice? This is the question that Socrates wanted to find an answer to. According to the American Heritage Dictionary justice is the quality of being just and fair; the princi...

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... in public life, which was considered the greatest achievable form of success possible in life. Regular public debates dealt with the questioning of application of justice and morality. Essentially, Socrates attributed the orators" success to being able to persuade massive amounts of people about right and wrong. Polus thought that acquiring supreme political power alone makes your life a great ... that a life of achievement, particularly political achievement, "and more specifically, practicing oratory), accompanies one's appetites and desires to satisfy them and results in a worthy li...

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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... ideas and arguments of Plato center on the social settings of an ideal republic- those that lead each person to a more perfect life. Socrates reputation for good conversation is already well established. In the beginning of this book he is approached by some amateur philosopher acquaintances and drawn into ... book deals with the soul, choices, and describes justice as the ultimate "form" of man and the ideals he should strive for. Whether or not Socrates defines the "true" meaning of justice is disputable. Nevertheless, Plato's Republic has come to be known as a great philosophical maste...

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... in pursuit of this absolute definition, and that is how Thrasymachus' entry into the conversation is a fundamental break from what has previously occurred in the story. Socrates begins questioning Cephalus out of natural curiosity. Socrates' philosophy is about asking questions and finding the answers through rational inquiry, discovering inevitable missteps along the way. He admires Cephalus' positive opinions on aging and death ... is steered towards the topic of justice. Cephalus says that justice is telling the truth and paying one's debts, and that this is how his wealth has been be...

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... Everyone must consider their behavior in relations to the community. The city of Athens had their specific laws, which are referred to as The Laws of Athens. While Socrates is imprisoned, he believes that he cannot escape into exile because he would then be corrupt. His idea is that these laws exist as one entity, and if ... telling him that if he does not escape, he will only be adding to the injustice. In other words, he tells Socrates he is a coward because he is allowing the enemies to win. Of course Socrates reacts by explaining that he could convince his enemies to let him live. He ...

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... not always hit the mark. Justice should be ideally guiding the city laws, but the notion of justice sought out by Socrates is prior to any city laws. Basically Socrates is looking for an answer outside of the city's laws and regulations, which is what will be Thrasymacus's downfall and in ... 's ears off because of their differences of opinion. Every argument that Thrasymacus makes on what justice is Socrates has a counter attack. For instance, "Justice is the advantage of the stronger". Socrates is able to reply to this definition by saying that the disadvantage of the stronger could al...

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... ). This statement covers the moral issue to an extent. Until this point, the gray area of moral legislation had not been not addressed by Socrates. But here in the text, he gives the individual a direction to go in that knowing what is right and wrong. If every single person ... This idea of minding one's business would hopefully rule out the simple and unimportant individual quarrels that we see today. So this proposed idea that Socrates had devised gave the people of the community an idea of how to act amongst each other. If working properly, the community would indeed be ... citizen. C...

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... 351b). The purpose of this argument is to determine whether or not just people live better and happier than unjust ones. Socrates starts off by refuting Thrasymachus with such question, that just people do live better lives, and that it is quite obvious. The whole ... or what it does better than anything else. (353a) Thrasymachus understands this and once again agrees with Socrates" reasonings. Socrates continues in asking whether a particular function has a virtue. Thrasymachus agrees only to have Socrates state that: a function performs well by means of its virtue and badly by the mean...

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• Grade Level: High School

... in turn define piety. Euthyphro's second attempt stated that the pious is loved by the gods, while the impious was hated by them. Again, Socrates objects, saying that although it passed the generality requirement, there was no conformity among the objects dear to the gods. After all, the gods ... be a ruler is a craft and a craft was established as that which provides what is advantageous to it's subject. Then to continue their discussion, Socrates wanted to address Thrasymachus?view of wether the life of an unjust person is better, or more profitable, than that of a just one. Thrasymach...

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... that is commonly, but powerfully held. He would like, he says, to see this view knocked down, and he offers a sort of test which, if Socrates could satisfy it, would prove to his or anyone's satisfaction that justice is preferable to injustice. Glaucon proposes a sharp contrast between two different men: on the ... man who appears just) does not live well and that the first man (the just man who appears unjust) does live well. In the process Socrates must also supply a positive definition of justice that will resist scrutiny. You might want to notice that here, among other things, we a...

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