Up to the Task?
            
             In the beginning of the second book of The Republic of Plato, Glaucon and Adeimantus both issue challenges to Socrates regarding justice. The first challenge issued is Glaucon's. Glaucon asks of Socrates that he prove that, "it is in every way better to be just than unjust" (35). Glaucon then takes up Thrasymachus' argument and furthers it with a description of the perfectly just and the perfectly unjust man, and the tale of the ring of Gyges. Adeimantus contributes to Glaucon's challenge, saying to Socrates, "So, don't only show us by the argument that justice is stronger than injustice, but show what each in itself does to the man who has it-whether t is noticed by gods and human beings or not-that makes the one good and the other bad" (44). To answer the brothers' challenge, Socrates states that it would be better for them to find justice in a city than to find it in an individual. Thus, Socrates creates the city of sows, and the city of the guardians.
             In the city of sows, Socrates creates a society in which there is no injustice, where everyone does specialized work, most of which is done for the other citizens, in return for the necessities that they alone cannot produce. In this city, there is perfect harmony between all the citizens and the common good. However, as a result of there not being any injustice, the society created in the city of sows is less a "just" society and more of an "amoral" society, as being just seems to require a conscious choice not to be unjust. For lack of that choice, the citizens of the city of sows are actually amoral rather than just, and that clearly cannot answer the challenge of Glaucon and Adeimantus. Therefore, Socrates creates a second city in book IV, the feverish city.
             In the feverish city, the citizens have the choice of being unjust. Therefore, to create justice in the feverish city, Socrate...