The Idea Of Justice In Plato's The Republic

In The Republic, Plato seeks out to answer two main questions; “What is Justice?” and “Why should we be just?” Book I of The Republic sets up the challenges that these questions will face. In a group setting of friends and foes, Socrates asks “What is Justice?”. While multiple of the men were throwing out ideas and answers, Socrates came up with contradictions that disproved their ideas and argued to why their answers do not make sense in defining what justice is. This is when Thrasymachus interrupts with his sophist opinion of what justice is. He tells the group that justice is nothing more than the advantage of the stronger. Sophists do not believe in a set “right” or “wrong”. They believe that justice should only be acted on if it led
Socrates first has Thrasymachus admit that he was viewing injustice as virtue, and by viewing it that way means that he believes that the purpose in life is to always be in competition to earn more. This could be money, power, education, or anything. That who ever earned the most would have the highest virtue. Socrates then goes on a rant of arguments which led him to conclude that injustice could not be a virtue because it would contradict with wisdom, which actually is a virtue. This is contradictory because a man of many skills never seeks out to be better than a man of the same skill. Socrates now brings up an argument of the importance of justice. Humans need justice in order to live together and to act accordingly to any rules. To end his argument, Socrates states that since everyone had agreed that justice is a virtue of the soul, and virtue means health, that justice is necessary and important because it means the health of one’s
We all can suffer from each others injustices so there is an unspoken social contract that we shall be just towards one another. It is better to be just than to suffer the worse consequences of being unjust. Glaucon states that justice is only practiced out of the fear of what could happen with out any justice at all. This is when he tells the legend of the ring of Gyges. He asks us to imagine that a just man is given a ring which makes him invisible. Once in possession of this ring, the man can act unjustly with no fear of consequences. Without any repercussions, why would a just man need to act just against his own selfish desires and wants? Glaucon uses this tale to prove that people are only just because they are afraid of punishment for injustice. I believe this proves that justice is not desireable, but it is necessary to live a good