Emerging from the latter half of the 5th century BCE, travelling professional intellectuals called the sophists frequented Athens and the surrounding Greek city-states. These intellectuals would offer an education in “arête” (excellence) – to those who would be able to pay a small fee. Arête, during the second half of the fifth century BCE, was associated by Greek citizens with being successfully influential in the political sphere through persuasive speech whereas before then arête was primarily associated with heroic virtues exemplified by Greek heroes like Achilles and Odysseus. Since the sophists were able to provide an education in arête in exchange for a fee, they would later be called “the new ‘teachers’ of 5th-century Athens” (Griffin…
Aristotle argues that some people are just born to be slaves, it’s in their nature to be obedient. “Some people,” he said, “were born natural slaves. They differ from ordinary people in the same way that the body differs from the soul. Such people are by nature slaves, and it is better for them…to be ruled by a master. Just as are some are by nature free, so others are by nature slaves, and for these latter the condition of slavery is both essential and just”…
What Socrates is trying explain is that justice can be more than the consequence. It is a good that will make you happier let your soul live well. It is a virtue in allowing to better the…
“Chicago cop cleared in unarmed woman’s shooting death”. Headlines just like this are becoming common in today’s society and the main question that the community asks is “when will justice be served?” Living in a time where the black community keeps getting shot by the police and no consequences occur, we have no choice but to question, what is justice? Similar to the modern society, the one Plato lived in confronted this same question of justice. In this paper I will attempt to explain the view that Plato places before us through Socrates in The Republic as to what is justice and does it “pay” better than injustice in society.…
In the text, Crito, a man by the name of Socrates is put in jail for a crime he did not commit. He is urged by another, named Crito, to escape from jail as it is unfair for him to be locked away for something he did not do. Although, Socrates firmly believes he should stay and face the time rather than escape. It is unjust for him to escape because he will spend his life running with no place to go and settle down, he will destroy the laws, and he should not do wrong just because wrong was done to him. It is unjust for Socrates to escape from jail because he will be running from the law without having anywhere to go.…
Arguably the most influential philosopher to emerge from Ancient Greece, Socrates was widely despised throughout his lifetime for his incessant search to find a man with more wisdom than he. Socrates was subjected to trial on the charges of impiety and corruption of the youth and was ultimately deemed guilty by the jury. Plato recounts Socrates’ lengthy speech of defense and his subsequent sentence to execution in his dialogue, The Apology. Regardless of his innocence or guilt, however, the verdict of Socrates’ execution is the most appropriate outcome of the trial. In his plea for acquittal, Socrates unwittingly proposes a more compelling argument in support of his own execution rather than against it.…
Which of the following is the better life? Just or unjust? If so, are men naturally just? It’s a controversial topic to discuss; however, Socrates and Glaucon dispute the better life. In addition, Glaucon and Socrates, use different scenarios to do so.…
Socrates’ flow of argument revolves around the premise that regardless of what you have by acting unjust, you will never truly be happy because you have not attained your goals and your worth by being virtuous, but rather, you have cheated the system of justice. Therefore, Socrates thinks that you will never be truthfully fulfilled with what you have acquired because it was just a direct result of unjust actions. Socrates embraces the idea that the unjust man is never truly…
When held on trial, Socrates stated that the people of Athens would be more harmed by his execution than he will be, if he were to be sentenced to death. Socrates was fighting charges for corrupting the youth and for not acknowledging the Gods. During the trial Socrates had proven that his accuser Meletus was accusing Socrates mainly out of spite instead of accusing him for the benefit of Athens or the people of Athens. He believed that an unjust killing was not good for the human soul. During the trial Socrates called himself a gadfly, attaching himself to the city of Athens and helping the people of the city understand the truth behind any theories that he would discuss or that would be brought up.…
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.…
When it comes to the topic of laws, most of us will readily agree that breaking the laws is unjust. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of if there is ever a time when a law can acceptably be broken. Whereas some are convinced that laws should never be broken, others maintain that there are some instances where laws should be broken. Socrates and Antigone would agree with the statement that disobeying laws is never the answer. Likewise, I have always believed that breaking the laws should be punishable and should never be done.…
Do you think Socrates did the right thing by allowing himself to be unjustly executed? Socrates had made an intelligent decision by sacrificing himself to protect the “Social contract” between the state and him, rather than escape from prison to break the rules. Use life to exchange for the preservation of his thought Escape from the prison is equivalent to destruct all of his thought and value what he had constructed during his lifetime. Because leaving Athens is kind of actions to contradict what he taught to his followers, be faithful to the righteousness.…
A man is given a magical ring that allows him to be invisible, and able to commit crimes without getting caught. The question is, “Could Socrates show this person that using this kind of magic would only cause him to end up miserable, rather than happy?” In my opinion, I believe that Socrates could possible convince this man that it’s not worth it. Socrates, who uses a method of asking questions, which in turn, forces one to examine their own beliefs. If the man is genuinely a man with good set of moral standards, then it would be possible to convince him to follow the path that would lead to genuine happiness.…
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles is a work heavily focused on justice. Oedipus, as the king of Thebes, discovers that the only way he can save his beloved city and its people from a rampant plague is to seek and accordingly punish his predecessor’s killer. Oedipus is determined to find justice for the city by harshly punishing the murderer, which he is successful in, but he in turn is penalized with harsh and irreversible consequences. The most pronounce theme in the play is that human beings are relatively powerless before fate and the gods. Although Oedipus tries his entire life to do what is right, by running away from home to save his adopted parents, killing the sphinx, and chasing a murderer, he ultimately faces a horrible end caused by his…
In The Republic of Plato, Plato considers the nature and value of justice and the other virtues as they appear in both the structure of society as a whole and in the personality of an individual human being. This city-soul analogy supplies Plato with a metaphoric language that enables him to describe aspects of the structure and dynamics of the human soul. He began with a detailed analysis of the formation, structure, and organization of an ideal state before applying its results to a description of personal life. This paper will explore how the Republic uses the description of an ideal city-state as a vehicle for explaining the harmonious operation of the human psyche, which can be likened to a city. This “psychopolis” can be well or poorly…