Justice and Injustice

In The Republic, the great philosopher Plato attempts to reveal through the character and dialogues of Socrates that justice is better when it is the good for which men must strive for, regardless of whether they could be unjust and still be rewarded. His method is to use dialectic, the asking and answering of questions. This method leads the audience from one point to another, supposedly with indisputable logic by obtaining agreement to each point before going on to the next, therefore, building an argument.

Interestingly about the work of Socrates is that its not known very well, since nothing was recorded during his time. Everything that we know about Socrates has come through the writings of his greatest pupil, Plato. Socrates was a man that revolutionized philosophy and how to approach his surroundings. One of Socrates greatest findings as a philosopher was that he admitted that he knew nothing, which to others, specifically the Delphic Oracle led them to believe that there were none wiser than Socrates. Socrates techniques as a philosopher came about with his abilities to question others. His line of questioning, to see why everything had a purpose drew a crowd of younger people, which leads us to The Republic, where Socrates encounters some questions for him.

Socrates had two young listeners posing questions of whether justice is stronger than injustice, and what each does to a man? What makes the first good and the second bad? In answering this question, Socrates deals directly with the philosophy of the individual's goodness and virtue, but also binds it to his concept of the perfect state, which is a republic of three classes of people with a rigid social structure and little in the way of amusement.

Although Socrates reiterates the concept of justice over and over again it all comes to his discourse on the perfect city-state, which seems a bit off the mark, considering his original subject. However, one of Socrates' main points is that goodness is doing what is best for the common. It is greater good as opposed to that of individual happiness. There is a real sense in which his philosophy turns on the concepts of virtue, and his belief that ultimately virtue is its own reward. His first major point is that justice is an excellence of character. He then seeks agreement that no excellence is achieved through destructive means. The function of justice is to improve human nature, which is essentially productive. Therefore, at a minimum, justice is a form of goodness that cannot be involved in being disruptive of one's character. In short, justice is a virtue, a human excellence. His next point is that acting in accordance with excellence brings happiness. Then he ties excellence to one's function. His examples are those of the senses: Each sensory organ is excellent if it performs its function, as the eye sees, the ear hears. Therefore, the just person is a happy person, which means that person is performing his function. Given that these are all tied together, injustice can never surpass these virtues and justice is stronger and is the good.

However, Socrates does not stop there. He moves forward to examine the questions that lead to the nature of justice and the just life. He identifies four of the Athenian virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. For much of the book, he looks at each virtue case by case in terms of the perfect city-state, but my objective is on justice. Socrates makes the point that justice, of all the virtues, resides in man's relations to other men, not just in man as an individual. Thus, it is an excellence in social organization and in the organization of the human soul. So justice is of virtue, which must be connected to the function of efficient and healthful cooperation. Justice is in one sense the greatest virtue for it is key to making the other virtues work together for the common good. If all the parts are to work together as a whole, each must have on function to excel at. This is very much like the engine of a car, each part of the engine has their own particular task, but without the complete unit, it will all collapse. Using this analogy, justice would be something like the moral engine that guides the car in its activities. Justice then is the engine, at the top of the hierarchy in social terms. When the other three virtues work together in a systematic manner