Socrates Argument Analysis

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Gluacon is challenging Socrates to define justice in a way that it is better then any other possible life. Socrates supports the conclusion he tries to establish at first and also gets Gluacon into agreeing with his claim. To prove or support this argument Socrates provides us with many arguments to praise justice and find fault in any other life without justice. Socrates argument starts off by him explaining how a good city is structured and what that means to the city. He says that a city that has been correctly founded and correctly structured is a good city. A city like this has four virtues. The first virtue is wisdom. He compares wisdom to rulers and he argues that a city that has a ruler has wisdom because of the knowledge that rulers…show more content…
Socrates then compares the evidence we found in a just city to a just individual. He first proves that since a city has three parts so does an individual. He labels the three parts of an individual as three parts of their soul. The first part is the rational part of the soul. Rational part of the soul he says is just like a ruler in a city because it is really wise and rules the other two parts of the soul. The second part is the spirited part of the soul. Spiritual part he says is just like the courageous portion in a city, in that it works with the rational part of the soul and makes an emotional response depending on reason. The last part of the soul is appetitive part. The appetitive part of the soul is just like the moderation division in a city, in that it is subordinate to both the reason part of the soul and the spiritual side. Appetitive part wants and desires many things but must be controlled by reason in order for soul to achieve degree of self-control. He then concludes that a just individual is just like a just city in that the three parts of the soul are in harmony and the rational part of the soul is in charge. One argument that Socrates gives in this text is that disharmony within the soul is just like an unjust individuals soul. He says that in an unjust individuals soul there is a kind of civil war happening between the parts of the

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