In The Republic, given that it is hard to define individual justice merely based upon individual level analysis, Plato expands the horizon to discover the notion of social justice in order to draw a connection with individual justice. He constructs the model of an ideal city and divides it into three distinct classes – the gold, the silver, and the bronze. Based on this categorization, he claims that social justice is “doing one’s own job, and not trying to do other people’s jobs for them” (433b), suggesting a person should do what is appropriate for his or her own class. When it comes to the relationship between the classes, Plato advocates that the silver and bronze should abide by the rule of the gold. This sense of obedience lies in the
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However, as the inconsistency between their mentalities and social roles still exist, they are forced to make a choice between these two options. If a person from the bronze class chooses to be socially just, then he would “keep himself free from other tasks, working on it throughout his life, and taking every opportunity to produce good results” (374c). Notice that Plato mentions this particular task should be a lifelong one, and the bronze person should try his best in order to make potentially better outcomes for the city. In addition, the person is assumed to be a citizen of a “swollen and inflamed city” (372e), where the task performed by the bronze is more likely to be one that “no longer what cities must have as a matter of necessity” (373c), suggesting that this job is beyond the occupations serving for the basic needs of human beings and focusing on satisfying higher levels of needs, such as beauty and luxuries. Trying to specialize in these superb jobs, therefore, requires the bronze person to be always driven by his appetites, rather than his rationality, in order to make his own profits as much as possible. Consequently, it is obvious that a bronze person should always directed by his appetites to specialize in his own task as proficiently as possible, which illustrates how this bronze person follows his own natural character and become a socially just but not a just man individually throughout the
However, as the inconsistency between their mentalities and social roles still exist, they are forced to make a choice between these two options. If a person from the bronze class chooses to be socially just, then he would “keep himself free from other tasks, working on it throughout his life, and taking every opportunity to produce good results” (374c). Notice that Plato mentions this particular task should be a lifelong one, and the bronze person should try his best in order to make potentially better outcomes for the city. In addition, the person is assumed to be a citizen of a “swollen and inflamed city” (372e), where the task performed by the bronze is more likely to be one that “no longer what cities must have as a matter of necessity” (373c), suggesting that this job is beyond the occupations serving for the basic needs of human beings and focusing on satisfying higher levels of needs, such as beauty and luxuries. Trying to specialize in these superb jobs, therefore, requires the bronze person to be always driven by his appetites, rather than his rationality, in order to make his own profits as much as possible. Consequently, it is obvious that a bronze person should always directed by his appetites to specialize in his own task as proficiently as possible, which illustrates how this bronze person follows his own natural character and become a socially just but not a just man individually throughout the