Compare Plato's concept of Ethics and Justice

INTRODUCTION

Plato was born in the Athenian family in 427 BCE. Plato's mother was Perictione who was related to Solon , architect of the Athenian Constitution. His father, Ariston was a descendent of the Codrus and dies when plato was young. Therefore he belonged to a aristocratic family. He had two brothers; Glaucon and Adiemantus who also appeared in 'The Republic'. He had a sister Potone whose son later became the head of Plato's school 'The Academy'.

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He was an understudy of Socrates (~470-399 B.

C.E.). While Plato uses Socrates as the "protagonist" of a large number of his discoursed, we can not simply expect that Plato's Socrates (the "character" in the exchanges we will peruse) "takes" the "positions" and makes the "claims" which were taken and made by the chronicled Socrates. Socrates led to the idea of a happy, just society where every member of that society lives a harmonious life. After his master was executed, he went to Italy and Egypt to study and eventually came to Athens and his own school 'The Academy'. Plato tried to pass the heritage of Socratic style of thinking as well as to teach the mathematical learning to the achievement of abstract philosophical truth. 

In the Republic Plato presents that the just life is better than the unjust life; the first concludes that the just life is happier than various unjust lives while the others show that the just life is more pleasant than its competitors.Plato created his idea of a morally just society, which he calls 'the kallipolis', in which he divided the society into three different sections according to the desires of human soul.

According to him, the three desires are appetite, spirited, reason rule over the three sections of society; i.e. producers, guardians, philosopher king. Plato's ideal society is the one which is ruled by the philosopher king who must rule in a just and virtuous way. We will further discuss Plato's concept of justice and ethics.

PLATO'S CONCEPT OF JUSTICE AND ETHICS

Plato's theory of justice has been developed step by step through the dialogues between the characters in 'The Republic'. His theory is based on the rejection of the several prevalent theories of justice. He criticizes theories of Cephalus which says justice consists in speaking truth and paying one's debt. Adding to this his son Polymarchus said justice is giving each person his due, which implies doing good to friends and evil to enemies. Plato criticizing that said that it is difficult to differentiate between friends and foes. Plato even rejects the idea of Thrasymachus, who defines justice as the interest of the stronger, and is soon forced to explain, that he means not simply physically strong but ablest, most skilled. Plato had disallowed this theory of justice because firstly, Justice can never be the interest of stronger.  Governing is an art and it must aim at the perfection of the material. A ruler must selflessly perform his duties as ruler, must work for the progress of his society. The pragmatic theory proposed by Glaucon stated that justice is an artificial thing, a product of social agreement.  Justice is the child of fear and is founded on the need of the weak.  That implies justice is not the interest of the stronger but it is the necessity of weak.  Plato condemned this theory on the account that justice is something external or an importation.  He said that, justice is rooted in human mind.

After rejecting these prevailed theories of Justice, Plato proposed his own theory of justice. Plato views justice as an idea, an attribute of the mind, which expresses it a just, political and social order. Justice, therefore, is a relationship between individuals depending on social and political organisation. It is to be studied as part of the structure of the community than as a quality of personal conduct. If one can visualize a just state, it is also easy to picture a just individual. Thus, Plato tried to integrate the problem of political reconstruction with that of the personal morality. Plato defined 'justice' as having and doing what is one's own. In other words, everybody does their own work. Mind is stated to be just when every part of it functions in its own sphere under the overall guidance of reason, which is the pilot of mind and soul. Plato suggested that justice is the virtue or quality of mind.  Plato's concept of justice is contrary to the constitutional-legal terms.

Plato defines justice in terms of two types, group and individual. Group justice is a type of political justice and Plato identifies political justice as the harmony in the structural political body. Plato's ideal society kallipolis consists of three classification; producers, guardians, philosopher king. The producer class are ruled by their appetitive desires and so are called the money-lovers; guardian class are ruled by their spirited desires and so are called the honour-lovers; within guardian class arises philosopher-kings who are ruled by the reason/rational desires and so are called the wisdom-lovers. Among these classes, philosopher-kings are intended to be the most intelligent one, mastering in mathematics, united with philosophical knowledge; to whom Plato considered to be the most efficient ruler of the kallipolis. Plato gives utmost importance to education and virtue through which he claims that he can achieve a morally just society. Plato's concept of education is based on his theory of forms within which he explains with the allegory of cave that the individual who attains the actual, self-realized knowledge is the philosopher king, and he distributes the benefits of his specialized knowledge among the citizens at large. In his theory of forms he depicts, the aim of providing education and knowledge to the individuals is to make them virtuous. Virtue as described by Plato has four main components i.e. wisdom, courage, temperance, justice. Plato also gives the concept of 'good' and explains the relation between the form and the good through the 'sun allegory' which focuses on the nature of knowledge. He claims that the 'good' make known things known. He explains that without the good there can be no knowledge and no truth. Thus, he gives philosopher king the power to decide the good for the society as he is the most knowledgeable person.