Justice as a Scale

Justice as a scale

A. Introduction

Can Plato's theory of individual justice, after 2,500 years, still provide an explanation of what is going on in the minds of today's human beings?

After an explanation of Plato's theory of individual justice, I will try in a second step to support its plausibility with a few examples; then I will state objections against his theory and further give counterarguments to prove Plato's theory to be consistent and plausible. The last part provides the conclusion.

B. Plato's theory of individual justice put to the test

I. Plato's theory of individual justice

Plato's theory of individual justice is based on his construction of an "ideal city" that holds civic justice via an argumentum a fortiori (a maiore ad minus): "If we first tried to observe justice in some larger thing that possessed it, this would make it easier to observe it in a single individual" . That is why I am going to outline first the domicile of the four virtues in the "ideal city" and explain in a second part, what individual justice is.

Plato's "ideal city" has three different classes of inhabitants: 'producers', 'guardians' and 'rulers'. Each of these classes wears a main virtue: the producers have 'moderation' , the guardians own 'courage' and the rulers must hold 'wisdom' . The fourth virtue, justice, is to be found if each class does "its own work in the city" and are "not meddling with what isn't one's own" . "It is the power that makes it possible for them to grow in the city and that preserves them when they've grown for as long as it remains there itself". Justice itself is claimed to be the major virtue as injustice is "the worst thing that someone could do to his city" . So this major virtue is 'embracing' all the other virtues and