The Virtue Of Justice In Plato's Republic

In Books II-IV of Plato’s Republic, Socrates creates an ideal polis, and in doing so finds justice in the soul. The two foundational principles of the ideal city that Socrates creates are self-sufficiency and one-person-one-art, referred to today as specialization. Individual people are not self-sufficient, so the citizens of the city must take up a profession and trade with each other. Socrates and his companions are successful in their search for justice, and are able to reach the answer by considering the classes and their education in an ideal state. Citizens of the ideal city are not able to rely exclusively on themselves, nor are they able to practice a multitude of crafts. The first point Socrates makes when creating the city is that …show more content…
There are three classes of citizens in the state: the craftspeople, the auxiliaries, and the rulers. According to Aristotle, justice in the state is these three classes doing what the are naturally inclined to do and not meddling in the others natural craft*(434d). The craftspeople build and create, the auxiliaries defend the city, and the rulers rule. Similarly, there are three parts in the soul: the rational part, which rules the whole of the soul; the spirited part, which dictates our passions and carries through what the rational part declares; and the appetitive part, which desires. Justice in the soul is each part of the soul doing what it is supposed to be doing. All three levels of society are able to contain justice in the soul. Both justice in the state and in the soul involve the three levels doing what they are naturally suited to do. Because justice in the state is essentially one person-one art, one of the two principles that the city was built on, justice first entered the state the second the first city was created. Maybe elaborate on