RE: Memorandum of Justice
In The Republic, Plato engages in a dialogue with his teacher Socrates, and in their discussion, they raise the principle of justice and how it is defined. There are so many questions to ask like why should people be just? Socrates asks what justice is, and he tries to object or to show a sign of discontent but at the end of the discussion, he does not give a definition of his own. Book 1 opens when Socrates and Plato’s brother are returning home from a religious duty and meets Adeimantus who takes them to a house which they were later joined by Cephalus and Socrates brings the topic of justice. Cephalus is the first person to define justice. He says that justice is living to your obligation and, to be honest. Polemarchus gives his definition of justice, claiming that it is doing well to your friends while at the same time doing harm to your enemies. In one way or another, Polemarchus definition of justice and that of his father are closely related, because both of them talk about giving people what they deserve (Plato 10).
However, when it comes to a junior office, if people cling to the fact that justice is rendering people what is due, people will end up harming the good people while helping the bad people because of the friends-enemies thing. Thrasymachus says that justice is all, but an advantage to the stronger, and this applies more to the junior office because it favors other people other than the just person. People who have more competition to add on what they have possibly neglect those with less. Again, justice is what makes junior office to work in solidarity and understanding as well as being fair to others.
In book 2, Glaucon defines justice as what people agree to do with other people so as to avoid harmful consequences. In grouping justice in groups, he says that most of the people believe that that justice falls in the first group, which is the things people desire for their consequences. For instance, people desire good health, not because they want it but because they are afraid of the consequences of illnesses. They, therefore, end up seeking medical attention because they do not want to suffer from illness (Plato 35). This definition correlates with what junior office do; they do things, not because they want to but because they are afraid of the consequences. People agree to do something, not because they want to but because they believe doing so will make them live happily with others.
In book 1V, Adeimantus says that it is horrible to become a ruler because they have nothing for their own, but Socrates objects him saying that rulers make the City worth living. Adeimantus also says that a City cannot be ruled without money, but Socrates objects once again mentioning that money are not all that matters. To him, a just city has no need of applying laws because they agree in one accord on what to be done and how to do it. He also says that justice is a principle that drives people to do what they are best fitted (Plato 99). His definition once again touches something to do with a junior office; they should not believe that it is only money which can make them great, but believing in who they are and what they can do. Education, for instance, can make them learn things that wealthy people cannot, and this will be the one that can define greatness.
Works Cited
Plato. The republic of Plato. Vol. 30. New York: Oxford University Press, 1945.
