Plato

Justice as a scale

A. Introduction

Can Plato's theory of individual justice, after 2,500 years, still provide an explanation of what is going on in the minds of today's human beings?

After an explanation of Plato's theory of individual justice, I will try in a second step to support its plausibility with a few examples; then I will state objections against his theory and further give counterarguments to prove Plato's theory to be consistent and plausible. The last part provides the conclusion.

B. Plato's theory of individual justice put to the test

I. Plato's theory of individual justice

Plato's theory of individual justice is based on his construction of an "ideal city" that holds civic justice via an argumentum a fortiori (a maiore ad minus): "If we first tried to observe justice in some larger thing that possessed it, this would make it easier to observe it in a single individual" . That is why I am going to outline first the domicile of the four virtues in the "ideal city" and explain in a second part, what individual justice is.

Plato's "ideal city" has three different classes of inhabitants: 'producers', 'guardians' and 'rulers'. Each of these classes wears a main virtue: the producers have 'moderation' , the guardians own 'courage' and the rulers must hold 'wisdom' . The fourth virtue, justice, is to be found if each class does "its own work in the city" and are "not meddling with what isn't one's own" . "It is the power that makes it possible for them to grow in the city and that preserves them when they've grown for as long as it remains there itself". Justice itself is claimed to be the major virtue as injustice is "the worst thing that someone could do to his city" . So this major virtue is 'embracing' all the other virtues and bringing harmony.

As stated before, these four virtues can be found in the individual's soul as well.: the tripartite conception of the soul and an harmonizing individual justice as fourth virtue. The three different parts are: the 'appetitive', 'spirited' and 'rational'. They correspond each to the classes' of the "ideal city" and their function: first the 'appetitive' part corresponds to the producers' moderation, second the 'spirited' part with the guardians' courage and third the 'rational' part of the soul with the wisdom resided in the rulers. "We'll call the part of the soul with which it calculates the rational part and the part with which it lusts, hungers thirsts, and gets excited by other appetites the irrational appetitive part, companion of certain indulgences and pleasures". Furthermore, "the spirited part is a third element in the soul that is by nature the helper of the rational part"; and it must be different from the first, as "even in small children, one can see that they are full of spirit right from birth"; it is "the part that is angry without calculation". Individual justice is the embracing and ordering virtue that steadies the struggling tripartite. "One who is just does not allow any part of himself to do the work of another part. Ð'... He binds together those parts and any others there may be in between, and from having been many things he becomes entirely one, moderate and harmonious".

II. Plausibility and Critical Evaluation

In my point of view, Plato's theory of individual justice is a consistent way to explain what both the virtue of justice is and what its functions are. I agree with his idea of the tripartite conception of the soul as well as the idea that individual justice brings harmony to those parts. Therefore it is a good model. It might be that more than three parts exist, which have to be scaled, but that doesn't change the function of individual justice at all.

III. Reasoning

In this part I am going to stabilize Plato's theory of individual justice in a first step. After that, I will try to scatter the theory with four objections, each of them will be followed by several counterarguments.

1. Plato's theory of individual justice, as it is to be found in politeia's 4th book, needs a more modern stabilization. Therefore, I will try to reach a deeper understanding of his theory.

a) Plato himself states an argumentum a fortiori in shape of a maiore ad minus in the Politeia at 434d by saying that what is to be found in the "ideal city", has to be resided in the individual as well. That is a good argument, as it lives on account of the idea that the smaller, which builds the bigger, puts in it what the smaller wore first. This argument is therefore the other way around, a minore ad maius . Both kinds of arguments a fortiori Ð'- a maiore ad minus and a minore ad maius Ð'- do not have to be valid, because still there could be an exception that disproved the rule: the smaller does not necessarily hold the bigger and the other way around. It is rather possible, or quite probable, to draw the conclusion. Unless one does not find a counterargument, which could be hold up against an argument a fortiori to be a reason for an exception, it can stand like this, holding that the smaller holds the proprieties of the bigger and the other way around.

b) My concept of Plato's theory is as follows: the three parts of the soul lie on a weighing scale. Each part has its own importance. The scale itself is the individual justice. It is holding the three parts in balance. One time it turns more to the rational, another time to the spirited part. But all in all the scale should be in balance. Truly each person has his own scale, so that e.g. a mentally weak person starts from a scale that isn't in balance on behalf of its rational part of the soul, but still the scale alias individual justice is doing its work.

c) Anyone who has ever had an internal conflict, which had to aim to a decision, will at least immediately claim a partite conception of the soul to be true. By recognizing the internal conflict one can state that the lack of individual justice Ð'- the parts struggling against each other and being not in balance Ð'- can be felt. If individual disharmony can be felt, there must be something that prevents the disharmony most times, one doesn't feel disharmony but is content and balanced.

d) Let me explain the state of disharmony of the soul with two examples. Many persons throughout

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