Justice in Plato's Republic: The Lessons of Book 1

FAIN: FT-269538-20

Roslyn E. Weiss
Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA 18015-3027)

Research and writing two chapters for a book about a new interpretation of Plato’s definition of justice in The Republic.

Although Socrates offers a novel definition of justice in Book 4 of Plato's Republic, it is argued that the place to learn what justice really means for Socrates in The Republic is Book 1. It is here that, through a series of conversations, Socrates teaches that conventional rules of justice, though important, are to be set aside if they lead to harmful consequences; that justice harms no one, neither friend nor foe; that justice cares for others and, in particular, for the weaker; and that the function of just government is first and foremost to encourage virtue in its citizens.

Associated Products

"Early Lessons on Justice in Plato's Republic" (Book Section)
Title: "Early Lessons on Justice in Plato's Republic"
Author: Roslyn E. Weiss
Editor: Yosef Z. Liebersohn, John Glucker, and Ivor Ludlam.
Abstract: An extraction of Socrates' lessons on justice to three successive interlocutors: the elderly and wealthy Cephalus, his son Polemarchus, and the sophist Thrasymachus.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-7056-6/
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Book Title: Plato and His Legacy
ISBN: 13: 978-1-5275

Justice in Plato's Republic: The Lessons of Book 1 (Book)
Title: Justice in Plato's Republic: The Lessons of Book 1
Author: Roslyn Weiss
Abstract: In Book 4 of Plato's Republic, Socrates introduces what is regarded by scholars as the Platonic account of justice, according to which it is essentially internal and self-regarding, a matter of relations among the parts of a city or soul. In this book, Roslyn Weiss contends that there is another notion of justice, as other-regarding and external, which is to be found in a series of conversations in Book 1 between Socrates and three successive interlocutors. Weiss considers the relationship between justice as conceived in Book 1 and Book 4, and carefully examines what can be learned from each of the arguments. Her close analysis of Book 1 brings to light what Socrates really believed about justice, and extracts and explores this Book's many insights concerning justice—at both the political and the personal level.
Year: 2024
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-1-009-4665
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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