Thrasymachus 'And Socrates' Definition Of Justice

Philosophy

1) Cephalu’s, Polemarchus and Thrasymachus definition of justice and Socrates objection to those definitions-point by point.

- To Cephalic the definition of justice is being honest, that lying would be considered being unjust. Socrates responds to his definition of Justice by saying that if you owe a madman his weapon in some sense if it belongs to him legally, and yet this would be an unjust act, since you know that he could harm someone with the weapon. So this can’t be justice, justice would be nothing more than honoring legal obligations and being honest.

- To Polemarchus justice is that you owe your friends help and your enemies harm. Cephalic and Polemarchus definition of justice is closely related to one another even
Just behavior works to the advantage of other people, not to the person who behaves justly. He is basically saying that the rational thing to do is to ignore justice entirely. Socrates respond’s by saying that Thrasymachus definition of justice promotes injustice as a virtue; injustice simply cannot be a virtue because it is contrary to wisdom, which is a virtue.

2) Glaucon Theory of Justice: the goods, the origin and nature of justice.

- Glaucon definition of Justice is very interesting; according to him being just is only for the weak and being unjust is for the strong. He gives an example that if a just man is given a ring, which makes him invisible and once in possession of the ring the man can act unjustly with no fear of punishment, the man would through away his morals and ideals of justice do to temptations, and the man would act in a unjustly way. This proves that people are only just because they’re afraid of being punish for being
The justice belonging to the city and state requires that each person must have their own role for which he is best suited and he/she should not change that role and should not interfere in any other business. He also says that human beings have natural gift that should be fulfilled. The just city is a city populated with workers working on there natural gift like doctors, farmers, carpenter, and they are all members of what Socrates call the “producing class”, because it is their duty to produce the goods for the city.

In the just city he says there has to be guardians/warriors in order for peace within the city to be maintain and protected. Warriors have to be developed with the right balance between kindness and toughness. They can’t be criminals nor be ineffective, they are carefully selected with the right balance of knowledge, honor and physical strength. Of course nature is not sufficient enough to produce guardians, so they have to be educated with the right amount of physical training, and in order to soften there heart they need to read poetry and listen to music for the soul. Guardians always have to be honest and must never fear death; they must also never engage in violent laughter. The other class of a just city is the ruler, which are the one dedicated to determine what is good for the city rather than for themselves. The