Justice In Plato's Republic

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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 …show more content…
After Socrates, the protagonist in Plato’s Republic, refutes a description of justice similar to the traditional poetic view of justice made by a man named Cephalus, Thrasymachus, a well-known sophist, enters into the discussion of justice with Socrates. Thrasymachus asserts, “I proclaim that justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger” (Plato, Republic I, 338 C). For Thrasymachus, justice is only revealed through the interests of the stronger party. Whatever the stronger party dictates as being good for itself, the stronger party, is what justice is. To further elaborate on his claim, Thrasymachus uses examples of cities governed by different ruling bodies. 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

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