The Beliefs Of Justice In 'The Republic Book VII' By Socrates

Socrates is speaking to Polemarchos, and during their conversation, Polemarchos proposes that justice is to simply help friends and to harm enemies. Socrates then brings up a great point, which is the way people choose friends and enemies, and how that process has flaws in it. He explains that people become friends with those that they believe are genuinely good, and become enemies with those who they believe to be evil. Therefore choosing friends or enemies is open to error since, people don’t know who is truly good or bad. From that point, they come to the conclusion that a better definition of justice would be, to benefit friends if they are good, and harm enemies if they are evil. Socrates asks the ultimate question, which is if it is alright to harm anyone at all. He proceeds to explain that harming another individual, be it a human or horse, makes them less just. If one causes another to be less just, whether the person is good or bad to begin with, that is unjust in itself.

This point that Socrates brings up about harming a horse or another human for that matter, reminds me of when in class, we discussed how to possibly make an unjust person more just. Prison seems to make people worse, which is why we have many repeat offenders. Jail seems to give prisoners a place to mingle with other criminals,

It is meant to teach us about the effects that education has on a person’s soul. There are a series of different stages that the prisoners go through. He begins the story explaining a dark cave where people are bound to. They cannot stand, or turn their heads; they can only look straight forward. The illustration in the book shows a fire behind the people which has a partial wall behind it. Shadows are seen by the prisoners, which are considered to be reality. Whatever the prisoners speak of is based on the shadows that they watch. This stage is considered to be the imagination