| Description |
Plato undertook in the Republic to show that "it is in every way better to be just than unjust" (Book II, 357b1 -- 2). What did he mean by this? I would like to focus on two relevant questions. 1) Did he believe that invariably the more just a person is, the better it is for him? We should prefer this way of putting the important question to asking, as is commonly done, simply whether being just is good for one. A philosopher might reply to this question affirmatively, meaning thereby that a person who is just is better off than a person who is unjust. But that would still not answer the question that I am posing, which is whether Plato held that each and every increase in one's degree of justice is good for one or, as we might say,1 in one's interest. |
