Chapter 21 Part 2

The Happy World of Plato's Republic

“If we allow the meaning of justice to vary, it risks justifying wrongs committed in its name,” Jude said. “We would have to accept the price of vengeance simply because it is justice to someone.” 

The watery eyes looked him up and down. “You seek a universal truth to justice that underpins the most just state of equilibrium,” he observed. “The beau ideal of mankind. But you have also said something about justice that I do not think you fully understand yet. And ironically you have echoed what Mr. Lincoln said in the debates. Reading Plato’s Republic will help you. However, if justice is a truth, it places demands on us that cannot be avoided. The price for that inflexibility may be greater than for vengeance.” 

“Who wouldn’t want to be happy?” Jude said with irony.  

“Very well. But you have been warned, Mr. Royer.”  

Schafer opened the book. “The Republic begins with Socrates examining the prevailing definitions of justice before discrediting them. Then via a questioning process that we now call the Socratic Method, he uses the answers to logically construct an ideal city, or Republic, where justice would flourish. He called this city Kallipolis, Greek for beautiful city. In Kallipolis we will find the true meaning of justice.” 

“Why is justice in a city?” Jude asked. “Oh, wait. In the Oresteia we see the power of justice transferred to governments. To this day our laws ordain justice. If justice is a state of equilibrium, it intimately involves our society.”  

Schafer agreed. “Book I of The Republic features three men who each represent a popular definition of justice. They are Cephalus, a wealthy and elderly man whose thoughts are drawn to the afterlife. Polemarchus is his son and concerned about his future inheritance. Thrasymachus is a Sophist, a teacher of knowledge.” 

“Sophist?”  

“The Sophists derived from the Greek noun sophia, meaning wisdom or learning, and were paid teachers. They roamed from city to city, attracting pupils and spectators interested in entertaining lessons, just as we today would go a public lecture. They came to be distrusted by Socrates for controversial arguments designed to shock their listeners, and he also disapproved of men who charged for their wisdom. But I speak harshly, for while Socrates had no love for the Sophists, they certainly varied in their capabilities, just like men on the popular lecture circuits.”  

“These three men would have very different interpretations of justice,” Jude speculated. 

“Old versus young, rich versus poor, worldly versus provincial,” Schafer agreed. “After Socrates discredited their definitions of justice, Adeimantus and Glaucon then step forward. They are half-brothers of Plato. The rest of The Republic is the dialogue between them and Socrates that reveals the truth to justice through Kallipolis. But let us begin with the first witness to be cross-examined by Socrates. Cephalus, the beau ideal of upper-class Greece, symbolized men who tried to live their lives rightly, as defined by the moral and social expectations of his day.”  

“The principles of dikaisyne,” Jude offered.  

“The correct, or righteous, way of thinking, feeling and behavior,” Schafer translated. “Cephalus does feebly offer that justice is respecting the gods through telling the truth and giving what one owes to others.”