Justice In The Republic And Saint Augustine's Confessions

The start of theater and drama in Ancient Greece took form in about 5th century b.c, with Sophocles being considered the master of tragedy. In his plays and those of the same genre, classic fables that the people of the era knew well were used to tell the stories. The tragic hero’s of these stories often strive to live honorable and righteous lives, but because of some mistake their lives would often great and noble death. The idea that serving the state was proper way to gain honor was a popular belief during this time period. This philosophy was echoed by Plato in his book, the Republic. Plato dealt with establishing the ideal state. The way to achieve the ideal state was through striving for justice. Justice, according to Plato, is doing only the tasks assigned to them by nature. This is the fundamental notion for his creation of an ideal city. It is both knowing what true justice is and where one belongs in the city that the ideal can be achieved. Justice in a city can be found in an individual as well outside the individual because it is a concept that is universal. If a ruler of a state was to maintain order and control over his people

In Plato’s book “Republic” he describes what he thinks would be an ideal city, for this city to be ideal it would have to be just. In his just city there are three classes of people; gold, silver, and bronze/iron; known as the National Division of Labor. The guardians of the city are placed in the gold category, the auxiliaries in the silver, and the farmers and craftsmen are in the bronze/iron category. Plato argues that the National Division of Labor reflects the requirements of nature and produces a harmonious whole. Wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice are the four virtues that this ideal city must have to be just.

In book II of The Republic, Glaucon has yet to be convinced that being just is better than being unjust. (Cooper, “Plato: The Complete Works”, 357) He wants Socrates to further explain why justice should be valued both in itself and for the consequences that come from it. (Cooper, “Plato: The Complete Works”, 358b) Socrates thinks that best way to this would be to theorize how justice would look in an ideal city. Socrates’ main goal from this point until book IV is to build this city theoretically and explain how justice acts upon this ideal city. For this paper, I am going to argue why this city is not completely good by explaining why I would not choose to live in it.

As Socrates was building the city, according to his different accounts of how city ought to be. There were different classes of people and the position they held in the cities community. In a just city as Socrates claims there will be citizens, guardians and a philosopher king as the ruler of the city. In order to maintain order, politics influence on human nature by politically influencing laws such as stopping peoples from changing their division of labour. For example, Socrates claims that it is impossible for an individual to practice many crafts proficiently as discussed by the companions earlier. (Plato, 1992, p. 49). The reason there is division of peoples in the city is so the city can run efficiently, if there were many people doing many thing, there will not be an efficiency of work. For this reason, politics constrained human nature in which individual as human nature wants to do more than one thing, but it is stopped through influence of ideology of how one ought to be. That individual does not want to do one job for the rest of his life; this form of ideology is first form pre capital which was discussed in the republic. Continuing, as politics influence increases in the republic the more constrained human nature becomes. In politics, the political thought of Socrates creates a guardian for city, a protector to defend against an enemy or to conquer land for the city. In

In the First-Third Century, Christianity wasn't a very popular option then. People persecuted Christians for over three hundred years, so you only became a Christian if you were willing to risk everything (Early Church Fathers: St. Augustine's Conversion, web). That was before the emperor of the empire that was persecuting Christians actually became a Christian! That's where these "lukewarm" Christians started coming along, and people started eventually delaying their baptisms. They wanted to make sure they didn't mess up their baptism through a serious sin (video source). It was in this time period when little Augustine was born on November 13, 354 in Northern Africa which is now present day Algeria (St. Augustine's Confessions By St. Augustine

St. Augustine’s Confessions is a book written by Augustine about his life. The book goes through his whole life from and important events during it. It is mainly about him and his journey to becoming a Christian. His mother; Monica, is a firm Christian believer while his father; Patrick was a Pagan. Patrick never wanted Augustine to be baptized or raised as a Christian. Augustine grew up to be a “bad boy” who would sin a lot. In book 2 he is a teenager and like every other teenager, he has raging hormones and a sex drive. He has a craving for women and he gets in with a bad group of boys who steal things. Augustine steals a pear only for the thrill of stealing something but eventually he hits rock bottom with

In The Republic by Plato, there is an argument about what would be the perfect just society. Socrates the narrator argues that the perfect society would be made of all brothers and sisters where each one would be assigned a fixed role for the rest of their lives. In this society you can either be a guardian, an auxiliary, or be part of the producing class. Plato’s main goal is to create a just society that would create happiness of the whole state not only the happiness of the individual. Now, Socrates in thinking of the happiness of the state is making the people in the state unhappy by having a definite role assigned to each person as a child.

In Plato's The Republic, justice is depicted as a major part in a perfect society. Justice is said to breed a good society, whereas injustice will breed a bad one. Plato defines justice in dialogue as "keeping what is properly one's own and doing one's own job." (Pg. 146) Under the rules set for this perfect society, people are to practice the one profession at which they perform best. This profession also corresponds to a certain social class. Under no circumstances can one change this profession. Along with a set occupation, Plato has also determined that the perfect community would regulate what children (and the community) are taught, and to what the children will be exposed.

Will a model society ever exist? Socrates describes the Republic in Plato’s Republic where he designs a flawless city where the cities principles are surrounded around the idea of justice, while on the other hand, Saint Augustine believes that a model society is one where individuals convert to Christianity and let God into their soul, as seen in the book Confessions. Sophocles, the author of the Greek tragedy, Ajax, shows that the citizens who are favored and liked by the gods and goddesses receive preferential treatment. Many societies function, but only one model society can prevail. The true model society consists of citizens who act justly and let God be within themselves, as seen in Plato’s Republic and Saint Augustine’s Confessions.

Socrates explains that just itself is health. A just city is a healthy city. He divides the city into 3 parts: RULE, AUXILIARIES AND PRODUCERS. Rulers provide us with knowledge and are the highest part of the city. Auxiliaries are also known as warriors, they are responsible for honesty. And then there is the producers which are the lowest class of the city (farmers, doctors, etc). Their main focus is money. Since a just city is equal to a healthy city, all these three classes are supposed to do what they are responsible for.

It is eventually put together that the value of justice is related to what value is of the soul. Socrates then develops his famous comparison between the soul and the city. As he cultivates this city, it seems become an ideal city, which he proceeds to construct in his discussion. The ideal city has three classes of citizens. The class to which he belongs, in turn, determines one’s function. So rulers should rule and not amass wealth - the function of the farmers, artisans, and merchants; if the rulers turn from ruling to moneymaking they are unjust. For

When considering all the pieces I read during English 104, Augustine's Confessions made the biggest impact on me because of his explanation of the nature of sin, why we deviate from God's will, and how God tirelessly pursues His children so that they might be saved. Augustine writes that anything contrary to God's will is sin. There exists a hierarchy of goods: God is at the top, with all of goods residing beneath. When humans pursue any other good before God's glory, they reject the necessity of Christ's redemptive sacrifice. This disordered love of earthly things only digresses into perpetual sin. Augustine equates sin to a soul filled with ulcers that man scratches with the pleasures of the world that will never fully satisfy the itch. This

Through Socrates expressing action as a virtue of justice, Plato examines the embodiment of justice as a harmony between the variety of “wholly good” people (P 32). After reinforcing his idea about the virtues of justice between people, Socrates builds off his established claim and states, “If we contrast the extremes of justice and injustice, we shall be able to make the decision correctly; but if we don’t, we won’t,” (P 39). Plato enforces this idea from Socrates, so he can examine a problem of mankind: decisions. Exemplifying that human nature leads people to benefit themselves, Socrates explains that there is a direct difference between just and unjust, but humans never truly act one way, and will either be just or unjust to benefit themselves. This flaw elucidates that there is no possible way for society to be completely just. Socrates later enforces this claim when describing the hypothetical society of Kallipolis because it consists of humanity being just towards one another which is not feasible and unobtainable in an imperfect world. Through Socrates’s guidance, Plato unveils the overarching idea that justice is harmonious between people but infallible as a way of living due to the human condition of always benefitting one’s self.

Socrates argues that the justice in the community is analogous to the justice in an individual. In a community/state, there are ‘4 cardinal virtues’—wisdom, courage, self-discipline, and justice. Wisdom is defined as the people who rule the city—the rulers—have the knowledge of truth. In other words, the state has wisdom if the rulers are wise. Courage is defined as the people who keep the city safe—the guardians—are able to judge what is worthy of fearing. So the state is

The Republic, suggests that a just man and a just state contain three corresponding virtues: wisdom, spirit and appetite. The virtue of wisdom is the ruling virtue of the rulers of the state. The virtue of spirit is the ruling virtue of the warriors of the state. The last virtue of appetite is the ruling virtue of the workers of the state. Socrates’ structure of a state is that the rulers have to be the one ruling the state because they are those with knowledge and wisdom. The warriors would support the rulers because they are those with spirit and courage. The workers would work and produce for the state. The state is a fixed system of government, everybody has to do their job and role of the society. Not only that, but everybody in state must only play their roles and not take other people’s roles.