Retributive justice

Thrasymachus’ Conception on Justice In Friedrich Nietzsche’s work, The Genealogy of Morality, he states that the existence of laws establishes what is just and unjust within a given society (Nietzsche 1280; sec 12). Thus, there does not seem to be anything explicitly virtuous for justice. In reference to the Republic, I will argue Socrates and Thrasymachus have different views on justice and will ultimately disagree with each other on Nietzsche 's conception of justice. Nietzsche’s entire work…

In “Plato’s Republic: Justice and the Good Life”, Socrates explores the subject of morality and justice within the soul. His quest to find the answer first involves analyzing justice in a city, and then in the soul and lastly by answering the question why be moral? He accomplishes this by analyzing different levels of justice in the soul from different individuals. First, I will reconstruct Plato’s account of justice as three parts of the soul, those being the rational, spirited and appetite…

Nietzsche makes an important distinction between the words “evil” and bad” even though they are both considered the opposite of “good.” He says that it is the individual views of the common man and the noble man that created these different concepts. The word “bad” originated from the nobles, and the word “evil” came from the ressentiment of the common people. Another important reason that these two words have different meanings is because the nobles and the common people do not share the same…

Professor Gerald Rosenberg, in his analysis on whether courts are powerful agents in achieving social change, highlights two main court views: The Dynamic Court view and the Constrained Court view. The Dynamic Court view holds that courts are successful agents in producing social change, while the constrained court view argues for the opposite (Rosenberg, 2). The American civil rights movement was an important demonstration in Rosenberg’s argument of the Constrained Court view (Rosenberg, 9).…

In Plato’s Republic, Thrasymachus and Socrates fall on opposite sides of the debate over whether leading a life of justice or injustice results in happiness. Thrasymachus argues justice in and of itself has no intrinsic value, but it is the appearance of justice that benefits the individual. Socrates, on the other hand, insists appearance alone is not enough but being truly just leads to an inner life of peace and balance. The unjust person experiences a turbulent internal existence, which leads…

In a world comprised of people who hardly seem different from anyone else, do you believe that people would so readily relinquish their sense of self? The dictionary definition of conformity is the “ compliance with standards, rules or laws.” On the other hand, individuality is defined as “ the quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked.” Bradbury reveals the theme that conformity suppresses…

The play antigone evidently demonstrates the contention of common law and divine law.Here divine law is spoken to by antigone while mainstream law is spoken to by ruler Creon. Aside from this there are different characters in the play who maintains Antigone in the play the contention is not of identities but rather of ideas– the contention of standards. The ruler bolsters mainstream law while others underpins the religious soul that is divine law. In any case is the standard of the god in…

different lenses in which one can analyze mankind. Plato is well known for drawing his stark contrast between the two in his work the Republic. The platonic Socrates is a strong advocate for the power of philosophy over poetry, especially when promoting justice among citizens in a community. Ultimately the Republic has often been regarded as “an attack on poetry,” while noting that there is definitely “a quarrel between philosophy and poetry” (Griswold). While this is the common belief, Socrates…

Nathanson is quick to condemn the Equal Punishment Principle because, for one reason, it does not lead to a “measure of moral desert” (as cited in Timmons, 2016, p. 539). Nathanson also condemns the Equal Punishment Principle because it does not result in a sufficient scale for knowing suitable amounts of retribution (as cited in Timmons, 2016). Nathanson elaborates on the second problem, stating that it is ethically heinous to make an individual pay for his or her actions by making them suffer…

A central theme in Plato’s The Meno is virtue. It is approached through posing two questions: How does one acquire virtue? And what exactly is virtue? Meno poses the question “can virtue be taught?” (70a) Meno’s goal is to understand how one can acquire virtue, but Socrates inquires as to what virtue is. Meno attempts a few definitions of virtue, which Socrates deems inaccurate through the usage of the elenchus, where he dissects each suggestion to show Meno that it does not hold all the…