Model of Justice in Platos The Republic Essay - 1705 Words

Model of Justice in Platos The Republic In what is perhaps his most well-known text, The Republic, Plato explores the fundamental concept of justice, how it is observed in the world, and its application to the lives of men. When he identifies the good in Book VI, which is reality and knowledge in their true forms, Plato also describes the visual world of shadows and false reality that people perceive and is cast by the sun. What follows from these definitions is that, while justice is a concept that exists autonomously from injustice and other fleeting conditions, injustice requires justice to be a medium for it to exist, develop, and spread itself. While it might be intuitive to a person that there is a†¦show more content†¦Though the whole of The Republic is an investigation of what justice is, the relationship between it and justice is derived from the virtue of sophrosyne. This quality of moderation and balance in a person is what Plato considers essential to the just man. He explains, â€Å"The reality is that justice is not a matter of external behavior but the way a man privately and truly governs his inner self. The just man does not permit the various parts of his soul to interfere with one another or usurp each other’s functions. He has set his own life in order.† (Plato, 137) That which is good withstands external pressures so that its essential quality is unchanged. Similarly, the just man is identified not by that which we visually observe about him, but the integrity of his internal composure. We have determined, therefore, that it is what is good about the just man that ma kes him just. Having established this point about the just person, it is sensible to consider the conditions under which a person becomes unjust. The development of injustice in the individual occurs when we do not have the internal balance that is indicative of a just person, but rather are excessive in some aspect of our psychology. Our psychology is based on three aspects of the soul which determine how a person will think and behave. Plato explains, â€Å"†¦[T]he soul is composed of at least two distinct parts. One is the reasoning part. The otherShow MoreRelatedPersonal Philosophy : Al Farabi1684 Words   |  7 Pagespractical use of philosophy is a major concern, and while the majority of his philosophy has been influenced by Aristotelian ethics, his practical philosophy is more closely related to Plato. Plato’s Republic is slightly similar to Al Farabi in the way they categorize philosophy and their concepts of justice. Al Farabi thought that philosophy was both a theoretical and practical discipline. The philosophers who do not apply this to practical reasons are referred to as futile phil osophers. Al FarabiRead MoreThe Ideal Society As Suggested By Plato993 Words   |  4 Pagesnatural skills. 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Plato’s most argued concept could be said to be the analogy between city and soul in Book IV, and I will discuss how this could possibly due to key flaws in his assumptions, as well as failureRead MoreThe Application of Platos Justice in Contemporary Society1913 Words   |  8 PagesApplication of Plato’s Justice in Contemporary Society â€Å"The result, then, is that more plentiful and better-quality goods are more easily produced if each person does one thing for which he is naturally suited, does it at the right time, and is released from having to do any of the others† (Sayers 21) Despite an existing definition of justice prior to his philosophical works, Plato spent much of his life challenging that definition and introducing his own. He used his famous work The Republic to define