Plato’s Republic
Republic: 387-367 B.C. THE QUEST FOR A JUST, MORAl SOCIETY: Aristotle: 427-347 B.C.
“for it is better in every way to be just than unjust.”
I. What is Justice? II. Justice in the City III. Plato’s Politics: IV. Injustice in the V. Poetry & Rewards
Book One: & in the Soul: Books 5-7 City & in the Soul: of Justice:
Books 2-4 Books 8-9 Book 10
Women, Family, &
A. Introduction,
327a-328b A. The Problem: Warfare: A. Four Imperfect Cities
357a-367e: 449-471c: A. Critique of Poetry,
& Souls:
B. Cephalus, Justice is practiced for the sake of 543a-576b:
595a-608b
Equality of sexes because women are the same kind, thus
328b-331d: rewards (e.g., noble reputation) but not share in men’s work, education, & warfare. Only the
pursued for it’s own sake because characteristics that a define a person’s performance of a
Socrates contrasts justice with four forms of
people are naturally selfish; if given task should determine what tasks the citizens are set to
Intuitive justice: the opportunity will commit injustice;
(454c-d) though women are weaker then men (455c;
456a).
injustice in order to show that each of them B. Rewards of Justice,
will generate less happiness than justice does:
better life for unjust appears to be better
Self-examination; fear of than for the just; injustice has not been Family life is to be the city;
timocratic, the oligarchic, democratic, &
tyrannical.
608c-621d
retribution. adequately argued as the worst thing a no single family units; no child rearing by parents 457c-
d); selective breeding among the best guardians; if Timocratic: emerges from aristocracy whereby
soul can gave & that justice is the children are inferior, then infanticide or abortion (460- their is a compromise between ruling and
greatest good. 461); Unity offers the greatest good a city can possess
working class; then oligarchy rules whereby the
C. Polemarchus (462a-464b), thus the city is to be a single family. (462b;
wrong children enter into ruling class (546b-
463e; 464b).
3 types of good: (1) good for its own sake, (2)
331e-335e: good for what flows from it (seeing the need to
547a), living off assets (552a, 564b);
City-state rewards victors while the coward are to suffer oligarchy lacks harmony that characterizes true
be healthy); (3) good for the sake of rewards. at hands of enemy; distinguishes between civil war and virtue & lacks self-evaluation; democracy
war (hostility with strangers);they will show constraint
retributive justice: return with no enslavement nor destruction (471); only quarrel
emerges where by it promotes disunity to its
B. Justice in the City, only to the point of penalty to both Greeks & non-Greeks logical extreme because it presupposes
what is owed is just.
(471 b) disagreement, unable to discern necessary from
368a-434d: unnecessary desires; it has not a guide to its
D. Thrasymachus, Method used to investigate what justice & injustice is to The Philosopher-King, steps (561b-558d-559c); tyranny emerges from
examine the justice of a city, then move to the individual democracy (563e) due to greediness, power, the
336b-354c: (368-369). 471c-541b: will to dominate (565e), and pleasure (lack of
City: farmers/craftsmen (369e-370d), guardians (373e-
Fitted to engage in philosophy & to rule (474c), a self-control (573)).
381, & ruler guardians (428d-429).
lover of every kind of learning (474c-475d-e) who
The advantage of the stronger love truth (475e; 485c) (learning produces virtue & B. Just and Unjust Lives,
4 Temperaments: wisdom, courage, moderation, & justice
whereby justice is the good of (429-430). expertise; 485a-486e; 487), & will know the form of
the good (cause of knowledge & truth), the object of 576b-592b:
another. JUSTICE IS REALIZED IN ACTIVELY knowledge (508b-e517b-d)., and will be a product of
the pedagogical system of the city (521c-541b)
SUBMITTING & PARTICIPATING IN THE
that begins with physical training (521e), music & This portion compares the harmonious philosopher to the
COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION ACCORDING TO
poetry (522), mathematics & geometry (522c), disorganized tyrant. The person with the tyrannical soul
ONE’S DISTINCTIVNESS lives in confusion, regret, and fear (577-578b). A man
astronomy (528d-e), argumentation (539b-c), &
with a tyrannical soul who has the bad lack to rule an
C. Justice in the Soul then philosophy (540-541).
actual city comes off the worst of all (678b-580a). The
Just pursues harmony which involves both physical &
(Character), 445-448. abstract knowledge pursued as pleasure(582c), self-
control, and magnamious” (591d-e).
2 major views regarding Plato’s purpose: (1) to refute the moral skepticism of the Sophists by demonstrating that there are objective moral truths and that, therefore, moral
standard are not meaninglessness; these moral skeptics taught that there was no objective right or wrong and that morality was merely a matter of convention. Thus books 2-
10 lay a foundation for conventional moral values; (2) revolutionary work to challenge us to contemplate an ideal society whereby the “good life” is decidedly authoritarian
and totalized in a communistic form [J. Annas, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic]. The main topic of discussion of “dikaiosune” defined as either (1) a quest for the right way
to live in its broad sense of this word or; (2) in a narrow sense it may be simply be “justice.”
