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Introduction
Justice in Greek times differs from our definition today. Today we associate justice with the successful implementation and execution οf political law, however, to the Ancient Greek’s justice was used to describe the proper and correct method for living. Justice is harmony and was believed it could be achieved through learning. Before examining the true nature of justice, Plato first establishes that justice is good (and consequently part of the good life) in Book I. The individuals in Plato’s audience attempt to describe their own version of justice: Cephalus argues that justice is a matter of self-interest; Polemarchus suggests justice is helping one’s friends and harming one’s enemies, and finally Thrasymachus proclaims that justice is the advantage οf the stronger. Plato listens to these theories and argues that justice is an excellence of character. The role that justice plays is to improve human nature. In addition to other things, justice is a form of goodness that cannot participate in any activity that attempts to harm one’s character.
Plato employs argument by analogies to enhance the theory that justice is one of the things that comprise ‘goodness’. He compares the art of living to the musician’s art. A musician has knowledge οf music and by this, he is better in music than one that lacks musical knowledge. The musician does not wish to transcend others who share his knowledge, he just wants to be superior to those ‘unmusical’ individuals. The same idea applies to the just man – he wants to outdo the unjust individual, but not those of his own kind. On the other hand, the unjust individual is self-serving and wants to be better than those both just and unjust alike. Plato goes on to dispel the theory that justice is power by showing that there is no loyalty among the unjust giving the example that it “causes civil war, hatred and fighting among themselves” (the famous ‘no honor among thieves’ idea). With justice established as something good, the nature of justice must now be examined
Main body
Plato addresses the nature of justice in Book II beginning with a warning: “The inquiry we are undertaking is no easy one but calls for keen vision.” It requires looking into the soul of human character and takes an acuter vision than most people possess, somehow justice must be enlarged to gain a clearer understanding. Plato enlarges the concept οf justice by bringing in the analogy of justice in the Kallipolis (the just state). After justice is visible in the soul of the city, it can be illuminated in the individual soul. He begins to construct the first city with the help of Adeimantus, analyzing the fundamental parts of societal life that correspond to the needs οf human life. Plato says “We will create a city but the real city will be our needs.” The goal is not to create ‘happy’ individuals in the state, because happiness is an elusive idea, unique to each individual. As Plato shows, a happy state is one in which each class performs its own tasks with its specialized function. Justice in the individual is of greater concern than happiness as a fundamental quality of life.
Plato begins the creation of the Kallipolis by providing the basic necessities of life – housing, food, clothing, and the ability to produce such items. Each person performs specialized tasks and the city grows and begins trading goods and services with other cities. During this process, Glaucon becomes enraged and accuses Plato οf creating a “city of pigs” with no luxuries of life that many Athenians have grown accustomed to. Reacting to this, Plato introduces the riches of culture, actors, singers, poets, and chefs, etc. The city is created grows similar to Athens. To quench the appetites of the citizens, the city needs to go to war to acquire more territory – an army must be created. The soldiers οf the city are called ‘guardians’ and their primary function is to protect the city with the state controlling their training and education. It is here that Plato introduces the revolutionary concept of censoring much of the educational material of the time. The old poems of Hesiod and Homer currently taught (in Ancient Greece) are lies and depict gods and heroes performing acts most people would condemn. Thus he asserts that young guardians only study stories that are examples οf good moral conduct to build strong character.
In Book III, Plato goes on to discuss further the education of the guardians and determining the roles of individuals in the state. He addresses the necessity of courage and valor in guardians by removing literature that encourages the fear of death. Physical training and musical training are stressed to develop the mind and spirit.
Rulers οf the city are chosen from among the guardians. From childhood, all guardians periodically receive tests determining their temptation to corruption and their concerns for the well-being of their state. In this process, the best guardians are discovered, exhibiting intelligence, moral and political prudence, and will be trained to become rulers. The ultimate ruler will be a mature, intelligent warrior with the needs of the state being his primary concern. Class society has thus been created. Rulers from the noblest class, followed by the auxiliaries (soldiers) and finally the workers – the merchants and producers, everyday citizens.
To prevent discord among classes and promote unity among members, Plato invents the “noble lie”, the “Myth of the Metals.” This shows that all people are siblings born from the earth and imparts a sacred authority to the unequal status of the class society. The myth says that all people are born with different constitutions οf their blood – the rulers having gold, the guardians silver, and workers bronze but are all created with the goal of protecting and nurturing the earth. There is a provision for social mobility based on demonstrated potential during the education process. To overcome class jealousies, each class is endowed with certain advantages and disadvantages. The guardians are servants to the Kallipolis; the workers can own property and accumulate wealth, however, they lack prestige. The Kallipolis has been created, with the virtues now to be discussed.
It is in Book IV that Plato further describes the virtues of the state and addresses the connection of these qualities to the individual. As was noted earlier, Plato does not promote individual, but rather collective happiness and has each class perform their respective roles adequately. This is illustrated in 420b: “the object on which we fixed our eyes in the establishment of our state was not the exceptional happiness οf any one class but the greatest possible happiness of the city as a whole.” For example, he does not require the ruling class to enjoy ruling, but rather has them consider state affairs and well-being their top priority.
Adeimantus once again raises the point of there being no luxury in the city, again bringing in the question of foreign policy and the possibility of war. To this Plato responds that the just city need not worry about invasion: the Kallipolis will lack wealth, diverting foreign interest; its army (the guardians) will be insurmountable; and that diplomats will be employed to form alliances with other cities, convincing the allies that the just city does not look to gain from the spoils οf war. The ideal, just state has now been fully described with the major Athenian values of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. The next task is to find the existence and nature of justice in this state.
The search for justice follows a course designated by Plato: he will look separately at where each virtue resides and see if it remains without a visible construct. Wisdom is first found among the rulers who run the Kallipolis efficiently and oversee the needs of the citizens. Courage is found among the auxiliaries who have been trained from a young age to be brave, courageous, and fearless. Plato next searches for moderation to which he attributes sobriety and self-control. Plato says that soberness is “A kind of beautiful order and a continence οf certain pleasures and appetites.” Moderation is a control of the negative aspects of the state by the better part, a self-mastery found in the producers of the working class. Plato asserts that moderation must be facilitated in its quest to reach the working class – this is the task of the wise rulers. Furthermore, moderation is not unique to the working class but must exist throughout all levels οf society in the Kallipolis. It follows then that wisdom, courage, and moderation exist in all classes of society. Glaucon helps Plato discover the location of justice by affirming that justice is the principle of organization and harmony that steered the designation of the other three virtues in the city. Plato adds to this that justice is “the principle οf doing one’s own business.” Justice is the residue of the other three virtues, emerging from a well-ordered state, an ideal socio-political system. It is the fuel that runs the Kallipolis. After developing and discovering justice in the Kallipolis, we can begin to ascribe justice to the individual.
Aristotle was deeply influenced by Plato. The Politics inherits many of his questions and some of the answers, on which Plato was working on when they first met. Aristotle reached crucially different conclusions about what philosophy is and about what it can do and this affected his political thought. His main disagreement concerned Plato’s forms. Plato had been trying to answer Socrates’ question; what is beauty? And what is justice? Plato did not think that the answer could be found in beautiful objects we see around us etc. because they are ever-changing and numerous thus no common features. He claimed that beautiful objects and just actions should be understood as particular and differing instances of true beauty and justice, which appear partially and imperfectly in each object. In our world οf, the senses forms can appear only imperfectly, as particular instances. Aristotle agreed that we must distinguish the particular instances of, say, justice on the one hand, and on the other a quality which is common or universal to them all. It is a very different matter, though, and in Aristotle’s contention redundant and misleading, to think that the universal quality has a separate existence in another world. Plato had thought that in order to reach truth and reality, we had to move from actual instances to the otherworldly forms. Aristotle on the contrary believed that this is the real world and that any answer about the universals and any general truths, and, above all, any explanation of the change, of growth and decay, can be discovered only by studying the actual instances themselves.
Authority, legitimacy, and power are among the key elements of any political system. Therefore, they have been topics οf much debate across the ages with various schools of thought contributing to political science thus shaping the discipline into the structure we know today.
The first of the three elements, authority, can be defined as “the right to issue a command” (Stirk and Weigall, 1995:39). However, the command that is issued must be issued with some sense of justice in order to ensure its legitimacy. The sense of justice, however, can be open to conflicting understandings and we thus need to address justice as a concept. According to Plato, when one asks the question, what is justice? One is synonymously asking, what is the best form οf a state? (Stirk and Weigall, 1995:2). Plato believed that the best form of the state is one in which each individual strives to be the best version of themselves and aspires to the state of goodness. This goodness would thus fulfill the properties of how we ought to live and behave. Once this moral regeneration has occurred, an individual in a position οf authority, issuing a command, does so rightfully. (Stirk and Weigall, 1995:39)In contrast to Plato’s ideology that men can intrinsically aspire to goodness, Thomas Hobbes postulated that all men would not strive for the state (albeit idealistic) of goodness without being commanded to do so. The guardian of this command should be an individual selected from the masses by the masses elevated to a position of complete authority (Stirk and Weigall, 1995:10). The justice in the commands issued by Hobbes’ patriarch lay in the prescription by the patriarch of “the meaning οf right and wrong, good and bad, mine and yours.” (Stirk and Weigall, 1995:10)This state of affairs then leads one to believe that the commands issued by the patriarch “rightfully issued rendering the citizens obligated to obey.” (Stirk and Weigall, 1995:39). This then leads one to the issue of the legitimacy of the issued command. When is a command issued and power wielded legitimacy? Which conditions by their legitimacy sure obedience? (Simmons, 1979). One proposed answer is embodied in the postulation of John Locke. Locke maintained that the consent οf the citizens is the most important factor in legitimizing governments’ authority (Simmonds, 1974). Since consent has been given by the citizens and the ruler is actively ruling the state, it is safe to assume that a social contract exists. Breach of the contract would constitute a crisis of legitimacy. This crisis is summarized by Locke as follows; “if the government takes powers that are not granted to them, they dissolve the contract between themselves and the people, and thus the people are released from their obligations to obey.” (Lock, 1967).
Any individual in a state of authority issuing commands deemed to be legitimate holds some sense of power. This power can be defined as ”the ability to influence or control the actions οf others, to get them to do what we want them to, and what they otherwise would not have done.” (Beetham, 1991:43). This power can only be attained through the possession of superior capacities or resources. (Beetham, 1991:44). One can then assume that a position of authority places a ruler in a superior position rendering the ruler powerful. Maintaining this power, however, according to Machiavelli would only be possible if the patriarch was to “cheat the onset of political decay.” (Stirk and Weigall 1995:226).
Conclusion
He further postulated that using brute force and might would be the effective method to protect the sovereign position and that the “Prince will take action in peaceful times in order to resist adversity when fortune changes. This force is the central tenant in the maintenance of power.” (Bonadeo, 1973)The intertwining οf these principles should ensure the wholesomeness of any political fraternity. Justice however is the pivotal factor in maintaining the balance. “Shorn of this association with right, we lose the ability to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate power, between authority and sheer might.” (Stirk and Weigall, 1995:39).
Works Cited
Beetham, D. The legitimation of power. London : MacMillan Education Ltd, 1991.
Bonodeo, A. Corruption, Conflict and Power in the works and times of Niccolo, Machiavelli. Los Angeles : University of California Press, 1973.
Lock, J. Two Treatises of government. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1967.
Simmons, A.J., Moral Principles and Political Obligations, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.
Stirk, P.M.R. and Weigall, D. An Introduction To Political Ideas. London: Pinter Publishers Limited, 1995.
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