Plato Just And Unjust

Improved Essays
Plato’s Republic often talks about what is just and unjust based on different philosophers. Each one has a different take when it comes to being just and unjust. When it comes to being just it is not possible it leave moderation and not talk about it.
Talking about moderation and justice in a city, it is important to be reasonable and just at the same time because both moderation and justice go together. The individual has to be moderate and self controlling in order to be just. Without moderation the individual will act unlawful therefore making one unjust. In my opinion it is necessary for the city and individual to be moderate in order to be just. Every city and individual is not just without being moderate. Moderation has a lot to do with justice because without it there will be conflicts in itself and everyone else around you. There are laws in every city that
…show more content…
Plato’s theory states that the just person will have a happier and cheerful life than the unjust person. We can take a look at how he indicates that every human being is divided into three souls. One of them is the rational soul which has to do with the mind and making rational decisions on what is false or what is true. Another should is the Spirited soul which in the city structure as courageous and willing to to something for the good.
The last one is the appetitive soul which has to deal with desire. This often has to deal with being moderate and being able to have self control. Every person who is just according to Plato’s The Republic has a task to perform his or her function and role in the society. Plato’s argument is that the person who is just and is in good connection with the soul has a happier and better life than anyone who’s soul not in good connection with the soul. The person with the unjust soul is alway in conflict and unhappy with the life they live deep

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Plato’s Position on Justice in Comparison to Dante and Machiavelli Plato asserts his position on justice throughout “The Republic.” His views constitute a model for how society should behave based on the values presented by Socrates in the dialogue. From Plato’s teachings we can infer that to establish justice, we must establish several principles in our lives including proper education, moderation, and courage. Although Plato describes how to live a just life through the metaphorical creation of a city, as opposed to focusing on the individual or going about the concept in a more abstract manner, he also asserts that justice is the quality of the soul, and a soul can only be pure if temptations are ignored. Socrates concludes that education and obedience are parallels.…

    • 1281 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He explains that cities ruled by tyranny, democracy, aristocracy, or other forms of government create laws that are advantageous for its rulers; democracies establish democratic laws and the others follow the same pattern. By doing so, a ruling body declares what is just for its citizens is what is advantageous for itself, the ruling class, and punishes those who break the law. According to Thrasymachus, it is disadvantageous to live by the traditional standards of justice for justice represents the interests of the stronger and the interests of the stronger often are not advantageous to the…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Plato’s “The Republic”, Socrates and his Interlocutors try and solve the riddle that is whether or not the just man is happier rather than the unjust man. In the following paper I will proceed to explain what Justice truly is. In book one of “The Republic” the question and main point of the entire first book is “What is Justice?” Cephalus claims that “Justice is giving what is owed”, but Socrates explains that it is not always a good idea to repay one's debts, for example if you borrowed a knife from your neighbor and he intends when you return it to kill someone, then in that instance even though that it is his property it is not just to return it to him.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Definition Of Justice In Plato's Republic

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    Justice can be described as “minding your own business.” The state and the ruler is just when its three classes or parts execute its own duties and do not interfere with each other. Therefore, injustice must be the opposite or as Socrates says, “…it must be a kind of civil war between the three parts, a meddling and doing of another ’s work, a rebellion by some part against the whole soul in order to rule it inappropriately (Plato…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Republic, Plato sets out to tackle the topic of justice—the definition of it itself and how it manifests in every day life. In Book II of Republic, Socrates says that in order to understand justice in a single person, he will try to examine justice in a whole city. Though it seems unusual, his arguments—which precede Book II and carry him through to Book IV—are strengthened enough that one can conclude he is in fact, correct to understand Justice in this way. At the beginning of Book II, Glaucon and Thrasmaychus put forward a fantastic argument that living unjustly, while not seeming as though you are doing so, is the key to living a happy and prosperous life. They liken that living unjustly is better because, “in pursuing what clings closer to reality, truth and therefore not regulating life by opinion,” (Plato 1963) one can acquire a multitude of benefits, which he explains to be “first office and rule of the state, a wife from any family you choose from, giving away your children's hand in marriage to anyone you please, and the dealings and partnerships with any individual you choose” (Plato 1963).…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The main theme of Plato’s republic is to define justice and other virtues as an idea for a utopian city state based on Plato’s beliefs on justice and to show how these ideas could be implemented According to the definitions provided by Cephalus, Polemarchus and Thrasymachus, they’re intended to define justice as another’s injustice. The main focus throughout Plato’s Republic are the arguments Plato offers towards what is just and unjust. In the beginning of book 1 Cephalus states his argument about what he believes to be…

    • 88 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Justice is an asset man people throughout history have wielded and cherished, but has it always been correctly understood. The question of ‘What is justice’ is one that causes people to challenge their beliefs and their knowledge. In The Republic, by Plato, Socrates questions many things, including the possible definition of justice. Another character named Thrasymachus joins the conversation to present a different view of justice from the one Socrates is contemplating. The main focus of these two character’s discussion is to answer the question of who justice genuinely benefits, and to define the relationship between justice and injustice.…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1) According to Socrates, one who seeks to know what justice is, should be dissatisfied with what lovers of spectacles regard as justice because these spectacles (including theater, poetry, and sporting events) do not contain the truth. Socrates also believes that the many just things are both just and unjust because they “roll around somewhere between not-being and being purely and simple” (Pg 160 d) Of the just, there are things that look and are unjust, and things that seem just at the moment are unjust in the long run. Both of these concepts are based off of opinions, and no one can find what justice is in these things because there is no true pure form for justice.…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tripartite of the Psyche The author Plato’s central focus in “The Republic” is to answer the question—what makes a person just? To tackle this inquiry, Plato’s character Socrates, from pages 136 to 138 goes into detail, arguing why there must be the three parts to an individual’s soul. In this portion of the text, Socrates argues that a just person—an individual’s soul that has harmony between the three areas of the psyche—rational, appetite, and spirited; therefore, the person exhibits wisdom, courage, and moderation. Ultimately in this section of “The Republic” Plato, through Socrates, Rather, argues that a person’s being is considered just if the soul’s sections are working in harmony. Plato begins this section of “The Republic”…

    • 1102 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the main arguments Plato makes is that the soul has the function of “caring for things, ruling and deliberating (Republic, 353d).” He goes on to add that living is also an essential part of the soul. We can conclude from this that a good soul cares, rules, deliberates, and lives well, while a bad soul does none of these…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “There are patterns which emerge in one 's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme.” (Carey) In Plato’s Republic, Socrates explains gives a long, in-depth analogy to explain justice. The analogy used is a city, in which everything is conditioned to be a perfectly just city. All the patterns of this city make it the perfect example of how a just society would be run, and exactly what justice means.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the Republic, Plato discusses and relates the three topics that are central to one lives, education, justice, and happiness. Through his definitions of these three topics, he considers how a society can achieve the proper education, justice, and happiness leading to his understanding of human nature. Plato addresses the close relation between being just and happy to the education received in society. The relationship between education, justice, and happiness depends on Plato’s understanding of these topics. Specifically with the relations of justice and happiness, the relationship is just as much dependent on the true sense of the idea as it is with Socrates rejection of the false claims.…

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Early on in Republic, it is clear that Socrates cares deeply about the idea of justice. However, he and his company cannot seem to agree on a proper definition of the word. They do, however, agree on various examples of what is not just. One such example is Socrates’ statement that “human beings who have been harmed necessarily become more unjust.” However, this statement implies that the only way to be just is to do what is best for society as a whole, rather than accounting for each individual’s idea of justice.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Plato on the other hand believed in the concept of the tri-motive. The tri-motive people have various parts. It begins with the wants or “appetites”. Then there is reason and in between the two there is spirit.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plato had many ideas about human nature, but his stemmed from a route that many Philoshipers failed to examine. Plato believed that Human nature had much more to do with our souls then our bodies. Plato states that the principal task of the soul is to pursue knowledge this we can decipher from the Allegory of the cave. Although Plato believed that the soul has three parts the Logical part, the Spirited and the Appetitive. The Logical part of the soul is responsible for the search for knowledge and truth, while the spirited part Plato identified with anger and temper, lastly the appetitive part of the soul Is responsible for love, sex, hunger and thirst; Plato theorised that the appetitive is generally opposed to the logical side of the soul.…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays