Justice According To Plato

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Society is constantly searching for the true concept of justice. Rather, in theory society is constantly searching for the true concept of justice. In reality justice is often times simply a word applied to broken concepts that those in power use to more effectively control those they are in charge of. This word is perhaps one of the most ill used in any language partially because humanity has not yet fully grasped what justice really means on a universal level. Many who have gone before us thought perhaps they had pinpointed the meaning though it seems that as time passes the view on justice changes to suit the times. Our minds would like to think there is one true, pure form of justice that can withstand the changing tides of the river of time and stretch universally. It seems however, the more our species tries to tie down the concept the further it slips from our intellectual grasps. Unfortunately, as with most things, the more we learn about the concept the more it seems we realize we simply don't know.

For Plato justice is the proper ordering of everything in life beginning with the soul and working its way through society. According to him the soul is divided into three parts in increasing levels of awareness. The first division of the soul is the most basic and the one most bent on obtaining comforts of life at almost any cost. This division is called appetite because those who are ruled by this have an insatiable appetite for worldly desires. The second division makes decisions not based on mere animalistic wants but on emotion and is referred to as the spirit division. The final sector is the reason division. This section is ruled by logic and reasonable thinking and represents those who have reached the highest level ...

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... fact be the answer to the true justice question.

However, this theory runs into the same problem Plato's theory ran into. Communism only works on paper in a sort of fantasy world. Getting everyone to accept that they're all completely equal to one another is just as difficult as getting them to accept that some people are inherently better than others. Also, as we have seen in real life instances of communism in action human greed gets in the way of being a truly classless society. Communist societies have all fallen into a complete dictatorship in which all the power and wealth rests with one person or a small group of people while the rest of society suffers in poverty. The equality offered by communism is simply another twist in words that is used by those in power to control the people. This cannot possibly be the justice that humanity is desperately seeking.

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