As a whole, Plato’s Republic is not an ideal state, however, there are specific ideas and qualities of his description of a state that could help make an ideal society in which to live. In his Republic, Plato expresses his ideas of justice and injustice, the good of the individual versus the good of the many, power, class structure, virtues, the simile of the philosopher king, and much more to demonstrate his idea of the ideal state, or regime.
First it is important to examine Plato’s idea of justice as this is an important presence throughout the entirety of his regime. In Book I of The Republic, the focus is on a dialogue of the nature of justice. As with all of Plato’s philosophical dialogues, the primary goal is to discuss the true nature of this subject by obtaining different viewpoints and analyzing each of them to determine the true meaning of justice. In his conversation with Cephalus, it is suggested that justice is simply “…the truth and giving back what a man has taken from another. suggests that justice involves nothing more than telling the truth and repaying one 's debt” (Plato 331c). But later on in this dialogue, Socrates counters this argument by using circumstances in which following these rules without any exceptions could prove ruinous. One example he used is that of returning a borrowed weapon to an insane friend because in doing so it would be following the rule, but would produce a negative result and not be truly just (Plato 331c). This rebuttal shows that in the technical sense, Cephalus’ definition of justice is incorrect as it does not coincide with the understood idea of justice. …show more content…
Since the fundamental aspects of justice may be easier to see on the larger scale (Plato 369a), Plato began with an extensive analysis of the structure of the ideal state before attempting to apply his results to one’s personal
First it is important to examine Plato’s idea of justice as this is an important presence throughout the entirety of his regime. In Book I of The Republic, the focus is on a dialogue of the nature of justice. As with all of Plato’s philosophical dialogues, the primary goal is to discuss the true nature of this subject by obtaining different viewpoints and analyzing each of them to determine the true meaning of justice. In his conversation with Cephalus, it is suggested that justice is simply “…the truth and giving back what a man has taken from another. suggests that justice involves nothing more than telling the truth and repaying one 's debt” (Plato 331c). But later on in this dialogue, Socrates counters this argument by using circumstances in which following these rules without any exceptions could prove ruinous. One example he used is that of returning a borrowed weapon to an insane friend because in doing so it would be following the rule, but would produce a negative result and not be truly just (Plato 331c). This rebuttal shows that in the technical sense, Cephalus’ definition of justice is incorrect as it does not coincide with the understood idea of justice. …show more content…
Since the fundamental aspects of justice may be easier to see on the larger scale (Plato 369a), Plato began with an extensive analysis of the structure of the ideal state before attempting to apply his results to one’s personal