The Republic Study Guide
GOVT-105-001 MIDTERM
STUDY GUIDE FOR PLATO'S REPUBLIC
Book I: Refutation of definitions of justice.
1. Who are Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus?
Cephalus: Older man, father of Polemarchus
2. How does Cephalus define justice? How does Polemarchus? Thrasymachus?
Cephalus: Justice is telling the truth and paying your debts. If a person follows this, they will be fine, and will be okay in the afterlife.
Polemarchus: Justice is being good to your friends and doing harm to your enemies.
Thrasymachus: Justice is defined as might makes right. The advantage of the strong. He is saying that it does not pay to be just. Just behavior works to the advantage of other people, not to the person who behaves justly. Thrasymachus assumes here that justice is the unnatural restraint on our natural desire to have more. Justice is a convention imposed on us, and it does not benefit us to adhere to it. The rational thing to do is ignore justice entirely.
3. How does Socrates refute each of their definitions?
Cephalus: Everyone would surely agree that if a sane man lends weapons to a friend and then asks for it back when he is out of his mind, the friend shouldn’t return them, and wouldn’t be acting justly if he did. (Giving the gun to a friend that just said he wanted to harm someone)
Polemarchus: He points out that because our judgment concerning friends and enemies is fallible, this ideology will lead us to harm the good and help the bad. We are not always friends with the most virtuous individuals, nor are our enemies always the scum of society. Socrates points out that there is some incoherence in the idea of harming people through justice. (Ex: Friend selling drugs to 13 year olds)
Thrasymachus:
- He makes Thrasymachus admit that the view he is advancing promotes injustice as a virtue. In this view, life is seen as a continual competition to get more (more money, more power, etc.), and whoever is most successful in the competition has the
STUDY GUIDE FOR PLATO'S REPUBLIC
Book I: Refutation of definitions of justice.
1. Who are Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus?
Cephalus: Older man, father of Polemarchus
2. How does Cephalus define justice? How does Polemarchus? Thrasymachus?
Cephalus: Justice is telling the truth and paying your debts. If a person follows this, they will be fine, and will be okay in the afterlife.
Polemarchus: Justice is being good to your friends and doing harm to your enemies.
Thrasymachus: Justice is defined as might makes right. The advantage of the strong. He is saying that it does not pay to be just. Just behavior works to the advantage of other people, not to the person who behaves justly. Thrasymachus assumes here that justice is the unnatural restraint on our natural desire to have more. Justice is a convention imposed on us, and it does not benefit us to adhere to it. The rational thing to do is ignore justice entirely.
3. How does Socrates refute each of their definitions?
Cephalus: Everyone would surely agree that if a sane man lends weapons to a friend and then asks for it back when he is out of his mind, the friend shouldn’t return them, and wouldn’t be acting justly if he did. (Giving the gun to a friend that just said he wanted to harm someone)
Polemarchus: He points out that because our judgment concerning friends and enemies is fallible, this ideology will lead us to harm the good and help the bad. We are not always friends with the most virtuous individuals, nor are our enemies always the scum of society. Socrates points out that there is some incoherence in the idea of harming people through justice. (Ex: Friend selling drugs to 13 year olds)
Thrasymachus:
- He makes Thrasymachus admit that the view he is advancing promotes injustice as a virtue. In this view, life is seen as a continual competition to get more (more money, more power, etc.), and whoever is most successful in the competition has the