Richard DeVivo
Prof. Fott
25 November 2014
PSC 200-1005
In the Eyes of Justice of Socrates and Polemarchus
In The Republic on Plato translated by Alan Bloom, Socrates and Polemarchus talk about justice between the three classes. The first class is the guardians who serve as rulers. The guardians must be just and have to be a philosopher. These people have to base all their decisions based of reason and not desire. The next class is the warriors, which is the middle tier who have courage and spirit. The lower class is known as the artisans, which have moderation and desire. When the warrior class started to get educated a discussion between Socrates and Polemarchus arose. What is justice?
In book one of The Republic of Plato, Polemarchus is…show more content… Cephalus is quoted as follows, “It’s in this connection that wealth is most valuable, I'd say, not for every man but for a decent an orderly one. Wealth can do a lot to save us from having to cheat or deceive someone against our will from having to depart for that other place in fear because we sacrifice to a good or money to a person. It has many other uses, but, benefit for benefit, I'd say that this is how it is most useful to a man of any understanding".(Bloom 331B) Socrates argues with Cephalus explaining that living a just life is simply just telling the truth or giving back your debts can at times be the wrong or unjust thing to do. Socrates gives the example of borrowing a knife from a friend, who eventually comes back for his knife his intentions of are not right. By giving him the knife back that would be an unjust decision. Cephalus, not really interested in keep talking about the definition of justice Polemarchus, suggests that Socrates argument goes on to give more definitions of what justice actually means. Polemarchus initial definition was treating friends good and enemies with harm. In a just society it is not appropriate to give harmful things to your friends. Summarizing his definition, he is saying, Justice is pleasing your friends and harming your enemies. Socrates then again states that harm should…show more content… All of our rulers are not philosophers and members of any class are able to get educated in today’s society. But from the descriptions Socrates give us times were a lot different back then. The Guardians were the rulers of society and as before mentioned they must be philosophers. They must be just and all their decisions must be based of reason. Guardians can’t have any desire nor personal property because that would change their motif to favor their property. Then “The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.” Today we just have politicians who come from different walks of life to try and come to a consensus to solve our nation’s