Plato and the definition of justice

In the Republic that Plato wrote in 380 before J.C. to give his opinion of the political state and justice, many definitions are given through the character of Socrates, who was Plato's mentor, and through characters inspired of Greek philosophers, generally sophists, as Thrasymachus, and Glaucon, who was Plato's own brother. Definitions are given as outcomes of debates between Socrates and the sophists, during which each character leads at a moment or another, until a stronger argument, usually asserted by Socrates, close the discussion. In this way, Plato explores a range of different points of view and aspects of the meaning of justice. It appears that they are four definitions of justice given by Cephalus, Thrasymachus, Socrates himself, Glaucon and Adeimantus.

However, the argument with Thrasymachus raise some questions about justice and injustice and the advantages they offer to men. In order to attempt an answer, it is important to understand what is justice according to Plato himself and what other definitions it could have. Then it is possible to demonstrate that he succeed in a certain extent to refute Thrasymachus and Glaucon's opinion.

In the first book of the Republic, Plato imagine a meeting between Socrates and some of his friends among whom Thrasymachus and Glaucon are present, at the occasion of a celebration taking place at the Piraeus. They are all invited at Polemarchus' house, where his father Cephalus who is an old man and friend of Socrates also resides, to celebrate and philosophise amongst themselves. The first notion of justice is introduced by Cephalus himself who talks to Socrates about the approach of death and the ideas of life's injustices it wakes up in unjust men. He points out that, on the con...

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...ether they are part of the rulers' class or not. Plato stated that each person has a function in a political arrangement of justice. Opposite to Plato’s definition, Glaucon argued that sometimes people gain advantage from injustice and finally, Thrasymachus told that justice is when our unnatural self possessions demand more and more because of our natural desires.

Works Cited

http://www.writework.com/essay/glaucon-s-definition-justice-plato-s-republic-also-couragehttp://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/republic/section2.rhtml

http://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=callicles-thrasymachushttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4181704?seq=11http://philpapers.org/rec/HOUTDOhttp://www.amazon.com/History-Political-Theory-Introduction-Medieval/dp/0030740169/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385939981&sr=1-1&keywords=george+klosko+history+of+political+thought