3 Proofs Of The Unjust By Plato
In Plato's Republic, the protagonist Socrates provides three proofs that a just life is more satisfying than an unjust life. Of the three proofs, The third is the focus of our attention today. It states that “ when the entire soul follows the philosophophic part, there is no civil war in it, each part of it does its own work exclusively and is just, and in a particular it enjoys its own pleasures, the best and truest pleasures possible for it...but when one of the other parts gains control, it won't be able to secure its own pleasure and will compel the other parts to pursue an alien and untrue pleasure” 586e-587a. I believe that the third proof is meant to distinguish between genuine pleasure and the relief of pain. Let us take a look at the
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examples that Socrates provides. At 584 e Socrates explains that disposed to pleasure, pain, and the intermediate state that, when they descend to the painful, they believe truly and are really in pain, but that, when they ascend from the painful to the intermediate state, they firmly believe that they have reached fulfilment and pleasure. I feel that this is the first situation where we will find the third proof in action. What it is saying is that if someone is hurt, they will clearly know they are hurt. But, when the same person begins healing they will think they are experiencing pleasure. That's not accurate. They simply believe it is pleasure, because the pain/hurt is gone. On a personal note, I see this on a weekly basis. Because of physical trauma experienced as a kid, i often suffer from migraines. When this happens I experience a physical pain in the light that only a dark soundless room can stop. When I am laying down staring into the void, I feel as though I have gone to heaven. I overlook the fact that If i didn't have the migraine to begin with, I would just be taking the day for granid. Yet socrates is trying to show us something more.This something involves emptiness. What the Republic then poses is the empty states of the body and then the empty states of the soul. Socrates brings this into the spotlight with the questions; Which kinds partake more of pure being,klins of filling up such as filling up with bread or drink or delicacies or food in general? Or the kind of filling up that is true belief, knowledge, understanding, and in sum, with all virtue? 585 b These questions want readers to question which brings the greater pleasure. On the surface it seems the answer is food and delicacies, because it is a pleasure above normality. As you begin to look deeper into the physical pleasures, you begin to see where they fall short. Food can be over consumed. When this happens, one's health begins to deteriorate. Thus making normality harder to achieve. And two many much of a delicy can form a reliance. This in turn can form an addiction. However pleasures of the soul do not have either of these downfalls. It is impossible to develop an illness form gaining knowledge, and as far as I am aware, an addiction to “understanding” is just as unlikely. Now to connect the dots: we as readers understand that there is a neutral ground between pain and pleasure, and we as humans wish fo find pleasure in a positive format. In order to do this, it is wrong to look to food, and delicacies. Insted we need to fill the emptiness found in our soul. Now that we can see how pleasure functions, let's show what happens when each of the three parts of the soul take lead in deciding what we want. When desire runs the soul, we chase after Plato gives us a clear outline on this matter in explaining that “the Juxtaposition of these pleasures and pains make them appear intense , so they give rise to mad and erotic passions in the foolish and are fought over”586-587. There is a recurring theme of this throughout history where we find men waging wars for the desires of gold, and oil Plato even has socrates pull form their history when he provides the example of Helen of Troy. If desire ever gains controll, there will we will then be dealing with an oligarchy, or democracy. And both of these steps in the road to tyranny. In the oligarchy, desire forces reason to chase profit, and spirit is left to hide at the bottom of the totem pole. In this case, they don't pursue what is just, but rather they search for profit and perverse society tell most vertue is lost. True, they will be able to acquire what brings them pleasure, but there will never be enough money to satisfy their greed. A solid example of this is Mr.scrooge from Charles Dickens 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. In dickens book, Scrooge drives himself into the ground and pushes away everyone he cares about because profit is more valuable than success, knowledge, or other physical desires. Though this is a way to live, it abandons the pursuit for something higher and simply accepts the “shadows on the walls”. With democracy there are many the same problems, the only catch: rather than chasing money, they would abandon all forms of security to follow the things that give them physical pleasure. Growing up in a household of alcoholics I watched as my father through money to the wind just for another buzz. Yet, No matter how much he drank he was never “happy”. Just as socrates said, the desire was for the thing that would bring him back to normality. His sickness brought him pain,and it wasn't pleasure he wanted anymore, but rather the intermediate between his suffering and pleasure above normality. But what if Spirit takes priority? The outcome is just as bad. One one hand, you arrive at a theocracy where the soul only craves victory. In many ways that is where I am. Through the entire course of my highschool, the only thing I wanted was victory. I would put in hours of extra time concerning myself with Speech and poetry competitions. Rather than doing them for fun, winning had become my life. I use to say “it's not about the entertainment, it's about the performance”. Now that i'm in college I realize how dumb that sounds. I wasn't satisfied with a victory, I was only ever happy when I was on top and the world was acknowledging everything i did. The side effects of this are parallel to what is stated in Republic. When talking about a spirited person we are asked “does his love of honor make him envious and his love of victory make him violent, so he pursues the satisfaction of anger and of his desires for honors and victories without calculation or understanding. I feel this is a little extream, but to an extent it is correct. Historically even I have stabbed my friend in the back “metaphorically” for a greater chance at success. Thus in the theater of examples, we see how reason has to be the one taking the lead, With reason leading the charge, there is no need to fill unnecessary wants, there is no reason to betray, and virtue maintains its constant value. Thus filling the wants and desires of all three parts of the soul. Socrates states the same thing when he states that “ when one of the other parts gain control, it won't be able to secure its own pleasure and will compel the other parts to pursue an alien and untrue pleasure. Finally, which is more pleasing; The life of the just, or the life of the unjust?
Clearly the just, for their pleasures are made of what is good and ture. Their pleasures are founded in a world of understanding that can not be taken away. The unjust live their lives looking for the next quick buzz, or the next fast profit. Because of this, they are never satisfied with their lives and what they have acquired. The just man can say he has tasted both desires and victory, but had the drive to pursue more. The just man did not quit at being the best, but allowed himself to keep attaining knowledge, and becoming more speriritchly full than those who chase after the unjust and untrue desires. A strange way of looking at it, is if both men were to die tomorrow. The unjust man would say I never had enough. But the just would say “my soul is at peace”. To me, the just man looks like Janusz Korczak. In 1911 he became a director for a jewish orphanage. Korczak had the option to walk away from the kids, several times throughout the course of World War two, but never once abandoned his virtues or his children. When the unjust man would have worked to saved his life, Korczak give comfort to those who looked up to him. You can destroy the physical body, take away the earthly desires, and even kill a man who is just. But in the end, he will only suffer pain of the body, but his soul will have its
pleasures.
examples that Socrates provides. At 584 e Socrates explains that disposed to pleasure, pain, and the intermediate state that, when they descend to the painful, they believe truly and are really in pain, but that, when they ascend from the painful to the intermediate state, they firmly believe that they have reached fulfilment and pleasure. I feel that this is the first situation where we will find the third proof in action. What it is saying is that if someone is hurt, they will clearly know they are hurt. But, when the same person begins healing they will think they are experiencing pleasure. That's not accurate. They simply believe it is pleasure, because the pain/hurt is gone. On a personal note, I see this on a weekly basis. Because of physical trauma experienced as a kid, i often suffer from migraines. When this happens I experience a physical pain in the light that only a dark soundless room can stop. When I am laying down staring into the void, I feel as though I have gone to heaven. I overlook the fact that If i didn't have the migraine to begin with, I would just be taking the day for granid. Yet socrates is trying to show us something more.This something involves emptiness. What the Republic then poses is the empty states of the body and then the empty states of the soul. Socrates brings this into the spotlight with the questions; Which kinds partake more of pure being,klins of filling up such as filling up with bread or drink or delicacies or food in general? Or the kind of filling up that is true belief, knowledge, understanding, and in sum, with all virtue? 585 b These questions want readers to question which brings the greater pleasure. On the surface it seems the answer is food and delicacies, because it is a pleasure above normality. As you begin to look deeper into the physical pleasures, you begin to see where they fall short. Food can be over consumed. When this happens, one's health begins to deteriorate. Thus making normality harder to achieve. And two many much of a delicy can form a reliance. This in turn can form an addiction. However pleasures of the soul do not have either of these downfalls. It is impossible to develop an illness form gaining knowledge, and as far as I am aware, an addiction to “understanding” is just as unlikely. Now to connect the dots: we as readers understand that there is a neutral ground between pain and pleasure, and we as humans wish fo find pleasure in a positive format. In order to do this, it is wrong to look to food, and delicacies. Insted we need to fill the emptiness found in our soul. Now that we can see how pleasure functions, let's show what happens when each of the three parts of the soul take lead in deciding what we want. When desire runs the soul, we chase after Plato gives us a clear outline on this matter in explaining that “the Juxtaposition of these pleasures and pains make them appear intense , so they give rise to mad and erotic passions in the foolish and are fought over”586-587. There is a recurring theme of this throughout history where we find men waging wars for the desires of gold, and oil Plato even has socrates pull form their history when he provides the example of Helen of Troy. If desire ever gains controll, there will we will then be dealing with an oligarchy, or democracy. And both of these steps in the road to tyranny. In the oligarchy, desire forces reason to chase profit, and spirit is left to hide at the bottom of the totem pole. In this case, they don't pursue what is just, but rather they search for profit and perverse society tell most vertue is lost. True, they will be able to acquire what brings them pleasure, but there will never be enough money to satisfy their greed. A solid example of this is Mr.scrooge from Charles Dickens 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. In dickens book, Scrooge drives himself into the ground and pushes away everyone he cares about because profit is more valuable than success, knowledge, or other physical desires. Though this is a way to live, it abandons the pursuit for something higher and simply accepts the “shadows on the walls”. With democracy there are many the same problems, the only catch: rather than chasing money, they would abandon all forms of security to follow the things that give them physical pleasure. Growing up in a household of alcoholics I watched as my father through money to the wind just for another buzz. Yet, No matter how much he drank he was never “happy”. Just as socrates said, the desire was for the thing that would bring him back to normality. His sickness brought him pain,and it wasn't pleasure he wanted anymore, but rather the intermediate between his suffering and pleasure above normality. But what if Spirit takes priority? The outcome is just as bad. One one hand, you arrive at a theocracy where the soul only craves victory. In many ways that is where I am. Through the entire course of my highschool, the only thing I wanted was victory. I would put in hours of extra time concerning myself with Speech and poetry competitions. Rather than doing them for fun, winning had become my life. I use to say “it's not about the entertainment, it's about the performance”. Now that i'm in college I realize how dumb that sounds. I wasn't satisfied with a victory, I was only ever happy when I was on top and the world was acknowledging everything i did. The side effects of this are parallel to what is stated in Republic. When talking about a spirited person we are asked “does his love of honor make him envious and his love of victory make him violent, so he pursues the satisfaction of anger and of his desires for honors and victories without calculation or understanding. I feel this is a little extream, but to an extent it is correct. Historically even I have stabbed my friend in the back “metaphorically” for a greater chance at success. Thus in the theater of examples, we see how reason has to be the one taking the lead, With reason leading the charge, there is no need to fill unnecessary wants, there is no reason to betray, and virtue maintains its constant value. Thus filling the wants and desires of all three parts of the soul. Socrates states the same thing when he states that “ when one of the other parts gain control, it won't be able to secure its own pleasure and will compel the other parts to pursue an alien and untrue pleasure. Finally, which is more pleasing; The life of the just, or the life of the unjust?
Clearly the just, for their pleasures are made of what is good and ture. Their pleasures are founded in a world of understanding that can not be taken away. The unjust live their lives looking for the next quick buzz, or the next fast profit. Because of this, they are never satisfied with their lives and what they have acquired. The just man can say he has tasted both desires and victory, but had the drive to pursue more. The just man did not quit at being the best, but allowed himself to keep attaining knowledge, and becoming more speriritchly full than those who chase after the unjust and untrue desires. A strange way of looking at it, is if both men were to die tomorrow. The unjust man would say I never had enough. But the just would say “my soul is at peace”. To me, the just man looks like Janusz Korczak. In 1911 he became a director for a jewish orphanage. Korczak had the option to walk away from the kids, several times throughout the course of World War two, but never once abandoned his virtues or his children. When the unjust man would have worked to saved his life, Korczak give comfort to those who looked up to him. You can destroy the physical body, take away the earthly desires, and even kill a man who is just. But in the end, he will only suffer pain of the body, but his soul will have its
pleasures.