Aspects of Justice in the Platonic Republic

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Published: Mar 25, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/ethiki.22752
Keywords:
Plato; Republic; Justice (Dikaiosyne); Socrates; Thrasymachus; Sophists; Harmony; Political Philosophy
Konstantinos D. Kalachanis
Abstract

This article examines the evolution of the definition of justice within the first book of Plato’s Republic. The author analyzes how Socrates systematically deconstructs traditional and Sophistic views of justice to pave the way for a higher philosophical understanding. The study follows the dialogue's progression from Cephalus’s view of justice as honesty and returning what is owed, to Polemarchus’s definition of helping friends and harming enemies, and finally to Thrasymachus’s provocative claim that "justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger". Kalachanis highlights Plato’s ultimate rejection of these external or transactional models in favor of an internal, ontological definition: justice as a principle of harmony within the individual soul, which then reflects the harmony and proper functioning of the different parts of the ideal State.

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