plato

In Plato's Republic, Socrates acknowledges that he knows only one thing for certain; he knows nothing. This is a crucial part of his understanding of human nature because he lacks problematic assumptions based on presuppositions that lead others to think they know. This allows him to explore and develop his philosophies freely, which is the goal of The Philosopher. We can get a glimpse of Socrates' idea of human nature by examining his dialogs relating to Justice, The Good, division of The Soul, The City, The Nobel Lie, The Allegory of The Cave, The Divided Line, and The Realm of Perfect Realities or Forms; All of which form his metaphysical world view. The idea of intersubjectivity is a major theme in Socrates' discussions because everything must be in relation to another. This can explain why Socrates seeks truth through an inquiry of questions and perhaps even though the inquiry of others.

Typically Socrates inquires along with others with a equal respect for one another to preserve dialog and discussion from being limited by language power struggles from ones character. Some do not bring such civilized notions, however, and may even be considered wild. We can see an example of this through Plato's description of Thrasymachus, one antagonist of Justice, as coiled up like a wild beast crouching and approaching Socrates as if he wanted to tear Socrates apart. This hints at Thrasymachus' animal like character before any dialog has even began and that any dialog to follow will likely be limited by his uncontrollable desire or appetite for his idea of Justice on an individual scale to be correct. Thrasymachus first defines Justice, in the form of a "just action," as doing what is in the interest of the strong and then follows by cl...

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... in the truest sense. However in The City, where the individual is in relation to others, a Nobel Lie or myth may be used to draw people towards The Good. This cannot be used on Thrasymachus because he takes a different position based upon his perceptions he has built, which leads him to be viewed as someone beyond The City with a more animal like conception of Justice. This makes me believe that Thrasymachus has a certain Darwinism aspect to him that causes many of his problematic assumptions like overreaching. We see overreaching to this day and know that it creates imbalances, which leads to injustices. Within The City the individual is protected by a sort of moral shield of ignorance, but The City itself will become increasingly corrupted until the individual soul is also drawn away from The Good. Thus the just life is preferable to to life of perfect injustice.