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Essay on Justice and Injustices

Decent Essays

As human beings we are always trying to differentiate right and wrong. We are constantly searching for what is the right thing to do so that we can make sure our actions are just. We do the right thing so we can satisfy our craving for justice. But there are times where justice cannot be obtained by doing the “right” thing because obtaining justice will always require some sort of action be done even if that action is wrong. Shakespeare’ Julius Caesar shows that before justice can take place there must be injustice. Nothing can be gained without first sacrificing something. Justice is the same way. The sacrifice for justice takes form in peoples actions. Sometimes those actions can be considered unjust, but if they are necessary …show more content…

The virtues of wisdom, courage and moderation are common to both a just and the fictional just city of Kallipolis. This artificial city has the pre-determined virtue of being just – he does this in order to understand what justice is for the individual because Plato thinks that ‘a just man won’t differ at all from a just city in respect to the form of justice; rather he’ll be like the city.’ (Republic 435b)
In the just city Plato creates three classes: the producers, the guardians and the rulers. Each of these three classes has a certain virtue it has to display to fulfill the ‘just city’ pre-requisite that Plato has placed upon Kallipolis. The rulers are required to exhibit wisdom so that ‘a whole city established according to nature would be wise because of the smallest class and part in it, namely the governing or ruling one. And to this class, belongs a share of the knowledge that alone among all the other kinds of knowledge is to be called wisdom.’ (428e-429a) The wisdom enjoyed by the rulers would be used to ensure that the city has ‘good judgment and [be] really wise.’ (428d)
The guardians (soldiers) of Kallipolis would be educated in order to absorb the laws in the finest possible way (430a) – ‘so that their belief about what they should fear and all the rest would become so fast

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