FREE ESSAY ON THE USE OF DIALECTIC TO DEFINE JUSTICE

THE 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? 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 with Glaucon, Plato concludes that producers were moderate;
guardians were moderate and courageous; and the rulers were moderate, courageous, and
wise.
After Socrates has found the other three virtues in the kallipolis, he then moves on to
justice. Socrates felt that justice was the virtue that was left over. Justice was an
understanding in the kallipolis of each individual performing their job without
interfering with that of another. Socrates placed the other three virtues first and as a
result he arrived with the conclusion that justice or morality is achieved through a
harmony of the others. Therefore Socrates defined justice as a function of wisdom,
courage, and moderation all working together to produce the best for the state. Justice
was considered as the harmony of the city as well as an individual.
Socrates felt that through examining the state and its parts he could discover justice in
the individual. Each individual was as the state, with three different parts: 
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mind, body, and spirit. The mind acted in each individual as a ruler. The virtue of the
mind was wisdom just as the ruler of the state. Courage is also found in the soul of the
individual in the form of the spirit. The spirit acts as the guardian of the soul just as
the soldier does for the city. And isn't in the individual courageous in the same way and
in the same part of himself as the city?(pg.117,441d) Moderation is throughout the soul
but mainly focused in the body. The body is parallel to the producer class of the city.
Socrates determined that an individual is just if the other three parts of the soul are
doing one's own work. Compared to the city an individual achieved harmony and morality
just the same.  And surely we have not forgotten that the city was just because each of
the three classes in it was doing its own work.(117,441e) Socrates felt that through
looking at the larger scope first, he could then infer more about the smaller scope. I
believe in Plato? use of Socratic method to obtain a philosophy of the state and the
human soul. The two concepts parallel each other as well as they are inseparable. The
individual and the state are dependent upon one another. How can a state be just without
individuals who are just? I believe Socrates answer to justice is manifested in
individual morality as well as 
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communal justice. Socrates?state is centered upon a communal attitude in both the
individual himself and the internal parts of the city.
Plato felt that to attain justice was to attain harmony in the state as well as the
individual. Through conversing with Thrasymachus in a dialectic method, Plato
philosophizes that both the state and the individual consisted of three separate parts,
which must harmoniously commune with one another to achieve the virtue of justice. 
Justice is the virtue found within the other three virtues: wisdom, courage, and
moderation. Each of these virtues exists in the state as well as in the individual in the
form of the mind, body, and soul. Within the state the ruler is wise and rules for the
happiness of the state. This is paralleled in the individual through the mind. The
individual? courage is contained in the spirit, whereas, the state? courage comes from
the guardians. Only through the use of dialectic could Plato have come to the conclusion
that moderation is the virtue that is consistent in each part of the individual and the
state. And when the citizens agree in this way, in which of them do you say moderation is
located? In the ruler of the ruled? I suppose in both.(107,431e) This is exemplary of the
advantages that dialectic gives to a philosopher. Here Plato 
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is able to make a statement about moderation through the dialectic used with Glaucon.
Through Socrates, Plato derives that moderation is the attribute of the producer class in
the state as well as the body of the individual. Plato felt everyone within the state had
to give there loyalty to the state. Plato defines this as everyone doing their own work
for the happiness of the state, while not interfering with the work of another. 
Through the use of dialectic Plato was able to define justice. Plato does this with an
analogy of the ideal city. The advantage of Socratic dialogue is that through continuous
interrogation one can shape the size of the question until the question that is asked
becomes the answer that the philosopher has been searching for. Dialectic is the thesis
then formed into an antithesis to conclude with a synthesis of ideas. Plato is able to
exemplify this method of philosophy while defining justice with an analogy of the ideal
city as well as the ideal person.