The Just Life Is Happier That The Unjust One?

Nina Monroe 16 April 2002 Philosophy: Ethics 6. What arguments are offered by Plato and Aristotle that the just life is happier that the unjust one? Do you find these convincing? Why or why not? The Happy Life “So don’t merely give us a theoretical argument that justice is stronger than injustice, but tell us what each itself does, because of its own powers, to someone who possesses it, and that makes injustice bad and justice good”.1 In this quote from Plato’s Republic, Adeimantus challenges Socrates to demonstrate that justice is good in itself, and ultimately, to prove that the just life is the happiest life for a human being.

Both Plato and Aristotle, two of antiquity’s greatest philosophers, concern themselves with the issue of human

Plato, through various Socratic dialogues, chooses to present his definition of justice in the context of a just state, later applying it to the case of a human. In the just state described by Socrates, each individual performs a certain function within society.2 It is in this principle of proper functioning of each part, from which Plato derives a definition of justice. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that Plato was highly critical of Athenian democracy, which encouraged its citizens to try many different professions throughout each of their lives. Plato found that a certain element of conflict or turmoil arises from conditions that promote various parts of a system to meddle with the other parts. Plato’s notion of justice clearly echoes his overall theory of a highest good, or the good in

Also like Plato’s philosophy, the crucial link between the just life and the happy life in Aristotle’s teachings seems to have its basis in the idea of pleasure. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle describes good functioning of the soul, or just functioning of the soul, as doing something you are able to do well.8 When this is the case, your life is pleasurable, and pleasure makes your life happy. In assessing the arguments put forth by Plato and Aristotle, I feel that both are very sound and convincing. Clearly, proving that one type of life is happier than another type, is a complex task, and there are several objections one might bring against the theory that the just life is happier than the unjust life. For example, I could easily agree with the objection that some acts of injustice, such as stealing money, will be a source of happiness to a certain