Plato
PlatoThe Use of Dialectic to Define Justice
Through the use of Socratic dialogue, Plato has an advantage at obtaining answers by refuting other philosophers. Plato is able to achieve an answer to the question, what is justice. He derives this answer through an analogy of the ideal city. The ideal city parallels the concept of the ideal person as Plato uncovers with the aid of dialectic. Plato defines justice as a function of harmony, which must first be achieved in an individual before being extended to the city. Speaking through Socrates Plato defines justice as a philosophical understanding of excellence in the organization of society and human soul.
In book IV Socrates refutes the notion that justice is visible, while using the Socratic method of dialogue. He questions that justice is the virtue that has no physical representative. Through the state, Socrates inferred that justice can be understood as opposed to being seen. In order to grasp the concept of the ideal city or the happy state one must first analyze its components. Plato does this with dialectic. Then he questions that each individual is a member of one of three groups: Rulers, Guardians, and the Producer class. Each one of the specifications of labor
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within the kallipolis accompany a chief characteristic. The rulers were considered to have wisdom as their virtue. People chosen to be a ruler exhibited a special knowledge for leading the state. In the kallipolis rulers make their judgment for the happiness of the state as opposed to their own individual happiness. "Is there some knowledge possessed by some of the citizens in the city� that does not judge about any particular matter but the city as a whole and the maintenance of good relations both internally and with other cities?"(pg.104,428d) The next virtue, Plato discovers through the Socratic method, was courage. "This power to preserve through everything correct and law-inculcated belief about what is to be feared and what isn't is what I call courage."(105,430b) This virtue resided mainly in the guardians. Each soldier was trained from their childhood about what to fear and what not to fear. Courage was apparent in the soldier�s beliefs in the state laws as well as doing whatever was necessary to protect the state. Through the Socratic method, Plato makes an analogy of the soldiers to poorly dyed wool, stating that a soldier will never present a ridiculous and washed out appearance. The next virtue, moderation, Plato discovered through the Socratic method was needed in every member of the kallipolis, but he divulged that it was the attribute of the
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producer class. "Unlike courage and wisdom... Making the city brave and wise respectively, moderation spreads throughout the whole."(pg.107,431e) Moderation was necessary for each class, especially this one since the craftsmen are considered the appetites of kallipolis. Through dialogue...
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