Justice
In the Republic, Plato attempts to answer
one of philosophy's most central
questions: What is justice or right conduct?
Thrasymachus, who is upset at
Socrates' rhetoric interrupts, suggests
that justice is what is in the interest
of the stronger. Thrasymachus's view
of justice is that justice is the advantage
of the stronger. Thrasymachus
explains this by expressing that the government
makes rules to its own
advantage and so it is declared just for their people.
Socrates argues
Thrasymachus's view by insisting that rulers command certain
acts on their
subjects which sometimes mistake their own best interest causing
themselves
harm. Thrasymachus agrees with Socrates that rulers often do act
against what
is in their own interest and that sometimes the stronger orders the
weaker,
their subject, to do what is disadvantageous to themselves. Thrasymachus
says
it is just to obey the orders of the rulers and just is the advantage of
the
stronger. The more important opinion of justice by Thrasymachus is
that
justice benefits other people while injustice benefits you. The stronger
person
uses his/her strength advantage to his/her advantage. Socrates
catches
Thrasymachus contradicting himself by stating that justice
requires doing what
is to the stronger advantage. Thrasymachus says that the
stronger sometimes
makes mistakes and orders something not to his advantage
and justice requires
subjects to obey stranger. Therefore, justice sometimes
requires subjects to do
what is not to the stronger's advantage. This
statement is a contradiction to
Thrasymachus's first remark. Thrasymachus
then introduces craft assumption.
Socrates believes that true crafts
people pursue not their own advantage, but
the subjects of their craft and
that rulers are considered craftsmen. Socrates
concludes that true rulers
seek not their own advantage, but their advantage of
their subjects. Rulers
use their craft to the advantage of their subject and not
for their own
advantage. Thrasymachus denies that true craftsman seek not their
own
advantage but, the subjects of their craft by giving example of the
shepherds
and cowherds. They do not seek the good of their animal instead their
sole
purpose is fattening them for their own good. The question that is
produced
is: What makes something the subject of a craft?" Two elements
make
something a subject. First, it needs to be the thing that is practiced
on. Sheep
are the shepherd's subject because they are being practiced on. The
second thing
is that the subject is the beneficiary of the craft. In this
case, patients are
the subjects of the doctor because they are the ones being
treated of the
illness. The dictionary definition of justice is that it is an
abstract
principle by which right and wrong are defined or the principle of
moral or
ideal rightness. This objection creates a major point of controversy
that
Socrates would like to expose falsehood. One example that Socrates
points to is
the honor among thieves. The same way that division and self
interest pulls
apart thieves, injustice will pull apart the soul.