Republic Book 2
In Book II of the Republic, Socrates and others begin an inquiry into the real nature of justice and injustice and their respective advantages. Although Socrates makes the statement, "Now as we are not remarkably clever..." his suggestion on how to proceed with this inquiry yields a very clever analogy. Socrates compares looking for the true nature of justice with a shortsighted person trying to read small inscription from a distance. I find this remarkably clever because he allows you to visualize how difficult a task this would be. Socrates then goes on to say that it would be a godsend if someone were to point out that a large-scale version of this inscription existed elsewhere. By making this analogy, Socrates is drawing a visual distinction in the minds of others between justice as it relates to the individual (the small inscription), and justice as it relates to the state (the large inscription). The analogy shows to others that justice exists on a larger scale in the sta!te and if they look first at larger inscription then they may be able to find justice there on a larger proportion. With Socrates' suggestion, the men set out first to inquire into what justice mean as it relates to the state.
That question in turn would prove that the five person state could not exist but rather more people would be needed to supply the necessary equipment that the farmer, builder, weaver, and shoemaker would need. Justice comes from the satisfaction of mutual needs being provided out of mutual respect and fairness. A well-bred dog will react harshly to a stranger but will welcome someone he knows. We can correlate welcoming behavior with justice and acting harshly with injustice. In our dealing we could only conclude that their state was formed out of these same needs. To accomplish this goal, Socrates proposes that they imagine a state as it is coming to be. Socrates knew that creating an imaginary state would provide more insight in how justice came into play in the first place and, after all, that is the knowledge they seek. This would once again increase the state because in order to take the land necessary from neighbors to increase the state, an army would be needed. The need for luxury in the state would mean that the population would have to grow yet again to provide the many callings that would come with it. These people would be the backbone of the state because they speed production and ease cost. Injustice would certainly come by invading the borders of another state merely to provide your state with luxuries. They all agree to this and so they have about five people to begin this state. The men could weigh their respective advantages only after they identified justice's true nature. If we are to agree that the two are contrary, as are justice and injustice, one can make a correlation between the two respectively. In my opinion, it is possible that a comparison can be made relating this behavior to justice and injustice.
Common topics in this essay:
Republic Socrates,
justice injustice,
justice comes,
mutual respect,
farmers smiths,
socrates explains,
nature justice,
true nature,
true nature justice,
socrates explains socrates,
land neighbors increase,
explains socrates,
comes existence,
behavior justice,
|
Acceptance Essays
