Is Socrates Just Or Unjust

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In Plato’s book the Republic Socrates is given the task to prove why it is always better to be just than unjust, regardless of how people view you. Socrates states in 357 a, that it is better in every way to just than to be unjust. He later says that the only way you can be just is if your soul is just. In creating a person with a just soul Socrates claims that each individual soul has three separate types of desires and motivations; the appetitive part, the spirited part and the rational part. (437 b-c) The appetitive part of our soul lusts after food, drink, sex, and after money most of all, since money is the means of satisfying the rest of these desires; the spirited part of the soul yearns for honor; and the rational part of the soul desires…show more content…
This is because philosophers have some of the money-lovers desires, more than money-lover has of the philosopher’s desires. The same is true of the honor-lover. Therefore Socrates is only arguing that philosophers’ judgment is better than any other person's judgment due to their more vast…show more content…
However since most pleasure is simply the absence of pain, what happiness really is, is the absence or relieving of pain. By removing or filling up you experience pleasure which then becomes happiness. If the pleasure of knowledge and learning is the best pleasure then it would be the best kind or level of happiness. It stands that a person that is happy because they are gaining knowledge is the happiest type of person. In Book I Socrates says that “… a just person is happy, and an unjust one wretched” (354 a) Therefore the happiest person is also the most just. So the person that experiences the genuine form of pleasure is the happiest and also the most

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