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Republic By Plato

Decent Essays

In the book The Republic by Plato, one of Plato’s goals is to explain what justice is and how it comes to be. The two characters, Socrates’ and Glaucon, begin to discuss justice, but their discussion quickly comes to a halt because their looking at it in a small scale: the individual citizen. Socrates’ decides to broaden their view and look for justice in the city. Doing so profoundly helps the two of them continue their search for what justice is. Their city is not a normal city though, it’s almost a utopia, and has to be in order to find justice. Socrates calls this his perfect city. After a lot of discussion, Socrates claims that justice is the result of three other things: wisdom, courage, and temperance. Plato (1996) says, “And of course …show more content…

Plato labels justice, along with wisdom, courage, and temperance, as the four virtues of this city. He goes into a description of all four in regards to the city, but his statements are not right. Plato is incorrect in how he analyzes what makes a city virtuous because rulers aren’t always fit to rule, a guardian would have little to strive for, advancements in social class would be desired, and justice is limited by the existence of the other three virtues. The first virtue of the city that Plato describes in The Republic is wisdom. Plato (1996, 428d) says that Wisdom is found in the rulers of the city. He is wrong by saying the wisdom of the whole city is found in its rulers. First we should look at how they got to be rulers. Rulers in Plato’s city are simply born into the positon. Not because they’re wise or smart, just because of family. Who’s to say an average man doesn’t know what’s best for the city? They do live in it after all, and they do more than just tell people what to do, which gives them a perspective more like most citizens. We should also look at the nature of rulers. Most become power hungry …show more content…

According to Plato (1996), the other three virtues must be present for there to be justice (433b-433c). Justice itself is basically everyone doing their own job so the city can operate smoothly. Justice is not possible in this city. I’m positive people will experiment with the job they do as their life goes along. Not very many people do one thing their whole life. Boredom sets in overtime and they just want a change of pace. Plato’s argument for justice is that everyone does their job and their job only. This keeps each person accountable for what they do. It’s a form of specialization. If someone is good at farming, they farm. If someone is good at baking, they bake (Plato, 1996, 434a-434d). This way things are done as efficient as possible and everything runs quick and smooth. It’s like a well-oiled machine. Plato’s argument is not strong though. The main reason is that I have proven that the other three virtues are not possible in the way Plato described. According to Plato himself, justice cannot be a virtue. The other reason is specialization is a great form of work, but it’s hard to control sometimes. Like I said above, people will want to try something new after a while. When this happens, the machine that is their city, will begin to fail. It’s like one bolt on an engine that lets loose. Once that goes, it puts more stress on all the other parts. One by one, the engine will destroy

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