Plato’s Theory of Justice

Introduction
The question of justice has been central to every society, and in every age, it
surrounds itself with debate. Justice has been the most critical part of a person's
morality since time immemorial. Perhaps, it is for this reason that Plato, the ancient
Greek philosopher, considered it crucial to reach a theory of justice.

Finding out the principles of justice is the main concern in Plato's Republic, to the
extent that it is also subtitled as ‘Concerning Justice’.

Ethics and Justice

In the Greek tradition of philosophy, political science was formulated after ethics.
Ethics is referred to as a branch of learning that associates itself with good conduct.
Ethics is, thus, that branch of philosophy that studies morality and deals with the
questions of right and wrong.

The Greeks have considered ethics to be the foundations of Politics and Justice.
According to Greek philosophy, the state comes into existence for the sake of life
and continues for the sake of a good life, which makes it essential to have a "just
society and a just state."

Plato, who can also be called the pioneer of Western Political Thought, viewed
justice as a central question when dealing with politics (here, politics denote the
subject of political science).

Plato and his thoughts

Greek political thought originates from Socrates. Plato was one of the most
brilliant disciples of Socrates. Plato is considered the pioneer of Western Political
thought today. It is because his mentor, Socrates, did not produce any writing, and
we know of his thoughts only from the writings of Plato.

Plato, whose original name is Aristocles, was interested in pursuing philosophy

and searching for the "truth". After the tragic death of Socrates, Plato produced
various works on questions of State, Law, Justice, Politics and Philosophy. The
Republic, in particular, is one of his most famous works. It deals with a wide range
of ideas, and many of those ideas are relevant and are studied to date. Theory of
Justice in Plato's Republic is worth studying for any political science student today.

Plato's Theory of Justice

Since the tradition of Greek Philosophy considered ethics to be important, they
believed that the state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues for
the sake of a good life. Plato believed in the same dictum and held that the state
exists to fulfil the necessities of human life. The origin of the state, therefore, owed
its existence to the fulfilment of human needs, and the Greek philosophers saw
society and state as the same.

Unlike other living beings, human beings do not merely seek survival but
essentially want to live a good life. Justice is the essential requirement to lead a
good life. One cannot lead a good life without meeting their needs, and it's possible
to meet one's needs only in the presence of Justice.

The Republic discusses Justice in the form of a dialogue. This methodology is

known as Dialectical Method, which Plato borrowed from his mentor, Socrates.
The dialogue takes place between Socrates, Glaucon, Adeimantus, Cephalus and
Thrasymachus. The dialogue concluded that if one were allowed to suppress
another, there would be complete anarchy, and it would be difficult to have any
state of affairs. To save oneself from any such suffering and to prevent injustice,
men enter into a contract to prevent injustice upon themselves or on others. That is
also how laws came into existence to codify standard human conduct and bring a
sense of Justice.

Essence of Justice
Socrates clarifies that justice is a relationship. A relationship among individuals
relies on the kind of social organisation they inhabit. He further explains that
justice can be analysed on a large scale, that is, state and then, on the level of the
individual. Therefore, Plato's idea of justice believes that just individuals and just
society are interwoven. To further understand Plato's theory of justice and its
essence, it is important first to solve the issue of selecting the best ruler for the
state. According to his argument, statesmanship is a special function and can only
be performed by qualified persons with a moral character.

Then, in order to comprehend the nature of the state, the nature of man has to be
understood too. Plato believed in "Like Man, Like State", implying that the
character of the state is dependent on the character of its citizens. It also meant that
once the nature of human beings is understood, it's easier to understand the
functions of human society, and to arrive at the conclusion as to who is the best fit
for ruling in this society.

Plato characterises human behaviour in three main sources:

 Desire (or Appetite)

 Emotion (or Spirit)
  Knowledge (or Intellect)
Each human being has all three emotions but what varies is the degree to which
these emotions are present in them. According to Plato, the ones who are restless
and rapacious are fit for trade. Others who are driven by their emotion or spirit are
best suited to become soldiers. Lastly, there are few who find no pleasure in
worldly pursuits or victory and are satisfied in mediation. Such beings yearn to
learn, and they are always in search of truth, and according to Plato, only these
men of wisdom are fit to rule.

Plato thinks that just like the perfect individual is the one who has the ideal
combination of desire, emotion and knowledge, a just state is the one that has
individuals as its citizens for trade, to be soldiers and to rule. In the perfect state,
individuals driven by desire will lead to growth and production but would not rule;
the military armies would maintain security but not rule either. Only the
individuals who have no appetite to gain material possession or power and are
forces of knowledge would become the rulers.

Justice: the virtue of state

In his idea of justice, Plato identifies virtues that suit each social class.

 The social class of traders, whose dominant trait is desire, the

befitting virtue of traders is TEMPERANCE.
 The social class of soldiers, whose dominant trait is spirit or
emotion, the befitting virtue of soldiers is COURAGE.
 The social class of Philosophers, whose dominant trait is
knowledge or intellect, the befitting virtue of Philosophers, is
WISDOM.
 The virtue that befits the state is JUSTICE which creates harmony
in all the three social classes and is a necessary condition for
human happiness.
The first three virtues belong to the respective three social classes, but the fourth
virtue is a manifestation of harmony between all the three classes. These four
virtues are also referred to as the four Cardinal Virtues of Plato's theory of
Justice.

Philosopher-Kings: the cornerstone of Plato's theory of Justice

Plato is known for his unique concept of the philosopher-kings put forward in his
political thought. He prescribed that the reins of government should remain with a
very small class of philosopher-kings who represent REASON.
According to 'The story of Philosophy' by Will Durant, "the industrial forces would
produce, but they would not rule, the military forces would protest, but they would
not rule, the forces of knowledge and science and philosophy would be nourished
and protected, and they would rule".

Conclusion
Plato's theory of Justice is famously known as the Architectonic Theory of
Justice. He explains that as during the construction of a building, each part is
assigned to different artisans, but the architect combines it to contribute to the final
outlay of the building and add to its splendour. Similarly, the three cardinal virtues,
namely Temperance, Courage, and Wisdom, would be cultivated by Traders,
Soldiers and Philosopher class, respectively, and Justice, the fourth virtue, would
act as the architect establishing a perfect state. Due to this inference between
architecture and the organisation of society, his theory is also called the
Architectonic Theory of Justice.

To conclude, Plato considers Justice to be a necessary condition of the good life. It

is conducive to human happiness. The Republic, his famous work, is the most
important work that explains his idea of justice. His theory of justice, built on
moral foundations, with a clarification of virtues and classification of social
classes, is considered today as relevant for all ages.

Plato's Concept Of Justice: An Analysis

D.R. Bhandari
J.N.V. University

ABSTRACT: In his philosophy Plato gives a prominent place to the idea of justice. Plato
was highly dissatisfied with the prevailing degenerating conditions in Athens. The Athenian
democracy was on the verge of ruin and was ultimately responsible for Socrates's death. The
amateur meddlesomeness and excessive individualism became main targets of Plato's attack.
This attack came in the form of the construction of an ideal society in which justice reigned
supreme, since Plato believed justice to be the remedy for curing these evils. After
criticizing the conventional theories of justice presented differently by Cephalus,
Polymarchus, Thrasymachus and Glaucon, Plato gives us his own theory of justice
according to which, individually, justice is a 'human virtue' that makes a person self-
consistent and good; socially, justice is a social consciousness that makes a society
internally harmonious and good. According to Plato, justice is a sort of specialization.

Plato in his philosophy gives very important place to the idea of justice. He used
the Greek word "Dikaisyne" for justice which comes very near to the work
'morality' or 'righteousness', it properly includes within it the whole duty of man.
It also covers the whole field of the individual's conduct in so far as it affects
others. Plato contended that justice is the quality of soul, in virtue of which men
set aside the irrational desire to taste every pleasure and to get a selfish
satisfaction out of every object and accommodated themselves to the discharge of
a single function for the general benefit.

Plato was highly dissatisfied with the prevailing degenerating conditions in

Athens. The Athenian democracy was on the verge of ruin and was ultimately
responsible for secrate's death. Plato saw in justice the only remedy of saving
Athens from decay and ruin, for nothing agitated him in contemporary affairs
more than amateurishness, needlesomeness and political selfishness which was
rampant in Athens of his day in particular and in the entire Greek world in
general. In additional, Sophistic teaching of the ethics of self-satisfaction resulted
in the excessive individualism also induced the citizens to capture the office of the
State for their own selfish purpose and eventually divided "Athens in to two
histile camps of rich and poor, opressor and opressed. "Evidently, these two
factors amateur needlesomeness and excessive individualism became main targets
of Plato's attack. The attack came in the form of the construction of an ideal
society in which "Justice" reigned supreme, since Plato found in justice the
remedy for curing these evils. Thus, we are to inquire in this study the nature of
justice as prepounded by Plato as a fundamental principle of well-order society.

It is to be noted that before Plato many theories of justice were prevalent. The
inquiry about justice goes from the crudest to the most refined interpretation of it.
It remains therefore to inquire what were the reasons for which he rejected those
views. Thus before discussing Plato's own concept of justice, it is necessary to
analyze those traditional theories of justice were rejected by him.

Cephalus who was a representative of traditional morality of the ancient trading

class established the traditional theory of justice . According to him 'justice
consists in speaking the truth and paying one's debt. Thus Cephalus identifies
justice with right conduct. Polemarchus also holds the same view of justice but
with a little alteration. According to him "justice seems to consist in giving what
is proper to him". The simple implication of this conception of justice may be that
"justice is doing good to friends and harm to enemies." This is also a traditional
maxim of Greek morality.

The views propounded by Cephalus and Polemarchus were criticized by Plato.

The view point of Cephalus was criticised on the ground that there may be cases
in which this formula may involve the violation of the spirit of right and his
formula does not admit of being taken as a sound universal principle of life. It is
not right to restore deadly weapons to a man after he has gone mad. And the
contention of Polemarchus was condemned by Plato on the ground that it was
only easy to speak of giving good to friend and evil to enemies. But if the friends
only a friend in seeming, and an enemy in reality, then what will happen? Then
under such circumstances whether we should rigidly follow the defination and do
him good or we may use discretion and do him evil? But to do evil to anybody,
including one's enemy was inconsistent with the most elementary conception of
morality. Thus, this conception of justice regulated the relations between
individuals on individualistic principles and ignores the society as a whole.

Thrasymachus who represented the new and critical view, propounded the radical
theory of justice. He defines justice as "the interest of the stronger". In the other
words, might is right. For while, every man acts for himself and tries to get what
he can, the strongest is sure to get what he wants and as in a state the Government
is the strongest, it will try to get and it will get, whatever it wants for itself. Thus,
for Thrasymachus justice means personal interest of the ruling group in any state
or we can further define it as "another's good". Laws are made by the ruling party
in its own interest. Those who violate such laws are punished because violation of
such laws is treated as violation of justice. Socrates criticises the defination of
justice given by Thrasymachus and he says just as a physician studies and
exercises his power not in his interest but in the interest of a patient, the
Government of any kind shall do what is good for the people for whom it
exercises its art. But Thrasymachus advances some more arguments in support of
his concept of justice and injustice.

An unjust is superior to a just in character and intelligence.

Injustice is a source of strength.
Injustice brings happiness.

Socrates attacks these points of Thrasymachus and throws light on the nature of
justice.

Justice implies superior character and intelligence while injustice means

deficiency in both respects. Therefore, just men are superior in character and
intelligence and are more effective in action. As injustice implies ignorance,
stupidity and badness, It cannot be superior in character and intelligence. A just
man is wiser because he acknowledges the principle of limit.

Unlimited self-assertion is not a source of strength for any group organized for
common purpose, Unlimited desire and claims lead to conflicts.

Life of just man is better and happier. There is always some specific virtue in
everything, which enables it to work well. If it is deprived of that virtue, it works
badly. The soul has specific functions to perform. When it performs its specific
functions, it has specific excellence or virtue. If, it is deprived of its peculiar
virtue, it cannot possibly do its work well. It is agreed that the virtue of the soul is
justice. The soul which is more virtuous or in other words more just is also the
happier soul. Therefore, a just man lives happy. A just soul, in other words a just
man, lives well; an unjust cannot.

At this juncture the new point of view is stated by Glaucon and he put Forward a
form of what was later to be known as a social contract theory, arguing we are
only moral because, it pays us or we have to be. Glaucon describes the historical
evolution of the society where justice as a necessity had become the shield of the
weaker. In the primitive stage of society without law and government, man was
free to do whatever he likes. So the stronger few enjoyed the life at the sufferance
of the weaker many. The weaker, however, realised that they suffered more
injustice. Faced with this situation they came to an agreement and instituted law
and government through a sort of social contract and preached the philosophy of
just. Therefore, justice in this way something artificial and unnatural. It is the
"product of convention". It is through this artificial rule of justice and law that the
natural selfishness of man is chained. A dictate of the weaker many, for the
interest of the weaker many, as against the natural and superior power of the
stronger few.

Plato realises that all theories propounded by Cephalus, Thrasymachus and

Glaucon, contained one common element. That one common element was that all
the them treated justice as something external "an accomplishment, an
importation, or a convention, they have, none of them carried it into the soul or
considered it in the place of its habitation." Plato prove that justice does not
depend upon a chance, convention or upon external force. It is the right condition
of the human soul by the very nature of man when seen in the fullness of his
environment. It is in this way that Plato condemned the position taken by Glaucon
that justice is something which is external. According to Plato, it is internal as it
resides in the human soul. "It is now regarded as an inward grace and its
understanding is shown to involve a study of the inner man." It is, therefore,
natural and no artificial. It is therefore, not born of fear of the weak but of the
longing of the human soul to do a duty according to its nature.

Thus, after criticising the conventional ideas of justice presented differently by

Cephalus, Polymarchus, Thrasymachus and Glaucon, Plato now gives us his own
theory of justice. Plato strikes an analogy between the human organism on the one
hand and social organism on the other. Human organism according to Plato
contains three elements-Reason, Spirit and Appetite. An individual is just when
each part of his or her soul performs its functions without interfering with those of
other elements. For example, the reason should rule on behalf of the entire soul
with wisdom and forethought. The element of spirit will sub-ordinate itself to the
rule of reason. Those two elements are brought into harmony by combination of
mental and bodily training. They are set in command over the appetites which
form the greater part of man's soul. Therefore, the reason and spirit have to
control these appetites which are likely to grow on the bodily pleasures. These
appetites should not be allowed, to enslave the other elements and usurp the
dominion to which they have no right. When all the three agree that among them
the reason alone should rule, there is justice within the individual.

Corresponding to these three elements in human nature there are three classes in
the social organism-Philosopher class or the ruling class which is the
representative of reason; auxiliaries, a class of warriors and defenders of the
country is the representative of spirit; and the appetite instinct of the community
which consists of farmers, artisans and are the lowest rung of the ladder. Thus,
weaving a web between the human organism and the social organism, Plato
asserts that functional specialization demands from every social class to specialize
itself in the station of life allotted to it. Justice, therefore to Plato is like a
manuscript which exists in two copies, and one of these is larger than the other. It
exists both in the individual and the society. But it exists on a larger scale and in
more visible form in the society. Individually "justice is a 'human virtue' that
makes a man self consistent and good: Socially, justice is a social consciousness
that makes a society internally harmonious and good."

Justice is thus a sort of specialization. It is simply the will to fulfill the duties of
one's station and not to meddle with the duties of another station, and its
habitation is, therefore, in the mind of every citizen who does his duties in his
appointed place. It is the original principle, laid down at the foundation of the
State, "that one man should practice one thing only and that the thing to which his
nature was best adopted". True justice to Plato, therefore, consists in the principle
of non-interference. The State has been considered by Plato as a perfect whole in
which each individual which is its element, functions not for itself but for the
health of the whole. Every element fulfils its appropriate function. Justice in the
platonic state would, therefore, be like that harmony of relationship where the
Planets are held together in the orderly movement. Plato was convinced that a
society which is so organized is fit for survival. Where man are out of their
natural places, there the co-ordination of parts is destroyed, the society
disintegrates and dissolves. Justice, therefore, is the citizen sense of duties.

Justice is, for Plato, at once a part of human virtue and the bond, which joins man
together in society. It is the identical quality that makes good and social . Justice
is an order and duty of the parts of the soul, it is to the soul as health is to the
body. Plato says that justice is not mere strength, but it is a harmonious strength.
Justice is not the right of the stronger but the effective harmony of the whole. All
moral conceptions revolve about the good of the whole-individual as well as
social.