Question no 2: Critically examine the concept of Justice in Plato’s Republic.

Plan:

i. Definition of the key terms: Justice and Plato’s Republic

ii. Types of Justice

iii. Concept of Justice in Plato’s Republic

iv. Conclusion

Plato has done many works in his philosophy when he described different ideologies, but in

this question I am going to explain the concept of Justice in Plato’s Republic, how does Plato

defines justice.

Definitions of key terms

First of all I will define the key terms that have been used in this Question.

Justice: There are so many definitions about justice, but I decided to quote and use one

from Oxford Dictionary which defines Justice as a term used to show or express fairness,

equity, rightness and equal distribution of resources. So justice is the ethical condition that

people who have similar circumstances and conditions should be treated alike and not

differently.

Plato’s Republic is the Plato’s theory in defining State, to him a state is like a human

being, the way parts of the human body function. According to him the human being has two

parts; the body, and the Soul. The body deals with external things while the Soul deals with the

eternal things. He went far by dividing the Soul into three parts which are the Appetitive part

which feels hunger, thirsts and so on. The second part is Rational, according to him this part is
the one that makes balanced decisions or in other words is the part that chooses between good

and bad. The final part according to Plato is Spiritual part which is courage and strength

Types of Justice

There are different types of Justice but am going to explain four types of Justice

according to Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer when

they explained about Justice and Fairness.

First of all is Compensatory justice refers to the extent to which people are fairly

compensated for their injuries by those who have injured them; just compensation is proportional

to the loss inflicted on a person. Secondly is distributive, this is about the fairness in what people

get. Another type of Justice is restorative; finally there is retributive justice which refers to the

extent to which punishments are fair and just. In general, punishments are held to be just to the

extent that they take into account relevant criteria such as the seriousness of the crime and the

intent of the criminal, and discount irrelevant criteria such as race..

After seeing what it means by Justice and Plato’s republic now let me explain how Plato

defines Justice in his Philosophy.

But to make it clear I will start by explaining how Plato explains the State in his

Philosophy. Plato as he defines three parts of the Soul, he compared with three types of the state

or republic as the Class of Producers, Guardians and Rulers.

Plato explains the group of producers as the group which produces goods for the society

use, such as Farmers, Artisans and Craftsmen.

 According to him the second group is a group of Guardians which has the duty of

guarding the society. The last group is the group of Rulers, these rule other people like

Philosopher kings which are in this group.

Plato needs to show that it is rational for people to be just no matter whom they are or

what their circumstances may be. Justice is in every one interest so in Plato’s Republic justice

consist of one man doing his own one object. Justice is when each of the three parts of the State

or Republic perform their duties. Plato says in order to have a just society each party must

perform its appropriate function, this is to say a ruler should rule, a guardian should perform his

work of guarding while a producer group should do its work of producing.

Comparing with African Societies one can find that, this approach of Plato was good as it

entails that if every part or department of the Government performs its duties appropriately then

development will be enhanced, but this is contrary to our African Countries in which you may

find that a Rulers want to perform duties which are not under his/her division or part . With this

situation things like corruption, nepotism, selfish etc take place because desire exceeds and

overrides other parts. Also you can find that producer want to work as Guardian which in

principal leads to misunderstandings between the two parties.

References:

Justice and Fairness Developed by Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and
Michael J. Meyer

The Ancient Greeks, Part Two: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle Dr. C. George Boeree

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/justice.html