Summary Of Justice In Plato Republic

In the book Plato Republic Glaucon presents the threefold taxonomy of the value of justice. This taxonomy is that justice is good for its consequences, good for its own sake, or both. The idea that justice is good for its consequences is pretty self-explanatory. An example comes when someone thinks about exercise or physical training; if that person exercised regularly, but never saw any results then it would be pointless to keep exercising. Some other examples of this our medicine, jobs, education, and eating. If medicine didn’t cure the problem or someone did not make any money at their job or no one ever learned anything in school or people ate but never felt full and it the food never gave them any nutrients, then people would never continue to do any of those things. The idea of justice being good for its own sake is a little trickier. A great example is when someone is healthy before they die. Say someone is in great shape, works out all the time and eats healthy, but then say one day they …show more content…
He believes that when these bad consequences are taken away then people will break the law. He uses the example of two different men: one just, one unjust. The unjust man has a reputation for justice; the other just man has a reputation for injustice. The man with a good reputation is going to continue to do unjust things because he receives good consequences such as being trusted in his society, having more money through unjust ways, etc. The man with the bad reputation could end up being put in jail even though he is perfectly just. At some point this just man may just give up and do unjust things because either way he will receive a bad reputation. These example shows that Glaucon is saying that justice is good for its