In Republic, Plato sets out to tackle the topic of justice—the definition of it itself and how it manifests in every day life. In Book II of Republic, Socrates says that in order to understand justice in a single person, he will try to examine justice in a whole city. Though it seems unusual, his arguments—which precede Book II and carry him through to Book IV—are strengthened enough that one can conclude he is in fact, correct to understand Justice in this way.
At the beginning of Book II, Glaucon and Thrasmaychus put forward a fantastic argument that living unjustly, while not seeming as though you are doing so, is the key to living a happy and prosperous life. They liken that living unjustly is better because, “in pursuing what clings closer to reality, truth and therefore not regulating life by opinion,” (Plato 1963) one can acquire a multitude of benefits, which he explains to be “first office and rule of the state, a wife from any family you choose from, giving away your children's hand in marriage to anyone you please, and the dealings and partnerships with any individual you choose” (Plato 1963). Glaucon asserts that all of the aforementioned, sought after luxuries and profits are achieved because a man should have no squeamishness about committing injustice. He also goes further, in an anecdote about the Legend of Gyges and his collet ring to prove that even the most just man would behave unjustly and indulge in all his materialistic, power hungry and erotically sexual desires if there was no fear of punishment and reprisal (Plato 1963). He makes the case, “What they will say is this, that such being his disposition the just man will have to
At the beginning of Book II, Glaucon and Thrasmaychus put forward a fantastic argument that living unjustly, while not seeming as though you are doing so, is the key to living a happy and prosperous life. They liken that living unjustly is better because, “in pursuing what clings closer to reality, truth and therefore not regulating life by opinion,” (Plato 1963) one can acquire a multitude of benefits, which he explains to be “first office and rule of the state, a wife from any family you choose from, giving away your children's hand in marriage to anyone you please, and the dealings and partnerships with any individual you choose” (Plato 1963). Glaucon asserts that all of the aforementioned, sought after luxuries and profits are achieved because a man should have no squeamishness about committing injustice. He also goes further, in an anecdote about the Legend of Gyges and his collet ring to prove that even the most just man would behave unjustly and indulge in all his materialistic, power hungry and erotically sexual desires if there was no fear of punishment and reprisal (Plato 1963). He makes the case, “What they will say is this, that such being his disposition the just man will have to