Cephalus Definition Of Justice In Plato's The Republic

Justice is a concept whose definition and connotation can carry a different meaning depending on which person is asked to define it. In the context of Plato’s The Republic, the idea of justice was far more nuanced than originally thought. Each of the men in the dialogue held completely distinctive ideas as to what justice meant to them. But according to one character, Cephalus, justice is “speaking the truth and paying debts”(Plato, Book 1). Using Cephalus’s definition of justice it can be argued that Galileo is a just man because he was trying to teach people the truth about the Earth, while Dr. McElroy and other members of the Texas Board of Education are unjust by faulting on their debt to society through their unwillingness to just teach the empirical truths about evolution. By examining the thoughts and actions of both Galileo and Dr. McElroy through the lens of Cephalus’s definition of

justice it can be determined which man is really acting justly.
Throughout the first book of Plato’s The Republic, Socrates asks the men around him what their notion of justice is.

Thraysmachus states that justice is “created from the interest of the strong” (Plato, Book 1), Polemarchus believe that justice is “doing good to friends and evil to enemies”(Plato, Book 1), while Cephalus believes justice is simply when a person “pays his debts and tells the truth”(Plato, Book 2). Using Cephalus’s definition as a basis, one can claim that the historical figure and scientist, Galileo Galilei is a just man for he is just trying to tell people the truth about the orientation of the Earth and the Sun. Galileo’s chief scientific and mathematical finding was that “the sun to be 65 situated motionless in the center of the revolution of the celestial 66 orbs while the earth revolves about the sun” (Galileo, 65-66). However, after Galileo published a document where the Church’s positions were satirized via a character named “simplicio”(Cunningham-Bryant, September 7), the Church clamped down on Galileo’s writings and called him in to be

questioned.
The two main criticisms against his conclusions are that they are both heretical and false. Galileo argues that his findings do not contradict the bible because they were “founded primarily upon sense experiences and very exact observations” (Galileo, lines 160-161). The justification behind this claim is that humans use their senses, logic and understanding to establish observations. In fact, Galileo even states that it was “God who has endowed us with senses, reason and intellect” (Galileo, lines 297-298). So then it can’t be considered heresy to use observations as evidence because observations are determined using the senses that God gave mankind. Furthermore, Galileo states that his findings are objectively true because he based his discoveries off of nature and not from the bible. He explains “But Nature, on the other hand, is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws imposed upon her” (Galileo, lines 265-266); while the bible “is not chained in every expression to conditions as strict as those which govern all physical effects” (Galileo, lines 273-274). Galileo here demonstrates that his scientific assertions are empirically true because they unlike the Bible, Nature’s meanings and laws are not open to misinterpretation and subjectivity. Since Galileo is telling people the truth about the world and how it is orientated, he meets Cephalus’s definition of justice and is therefore a just man.
Now while Galileo meets Cephalus’s definition of justice, Dr. McElroy and some of the members of the Texas Board of Education miserably fail to adhere to do so. In fact, McElroy as shown in The Revisionaries not only fails to tell people the objective truth about evolution, but simultaneously disregards his responsibility to pay his debts; his debts to society. In this particular case, McElroy’s debt to society is his responsibility to give children a good education so they can be prepared for college or life in general. McElroy himself believes that “since each child is created in the image of God, I want to see that they have the best opportunity possible”(Thurman, 9:45). However, McElroy believes that the faults of evolution should be taught in school because he believes “the evidence doesn’t support it” (Thurman, 30:37). McElroy fails to acknowledge an established fact that has been confirmed through scientific consensus and wants to teach students about theories that echo his religious views.
When McElroy and the rest of the board decide to purposefully distort scientific truth they are knowingly miseducating society’s children. In fact, Socrates talks about how what students are taught should be carefully considered because at their age they are extremely impressionable. Socrates states that "and shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons” (Plato, Book 2), to demonstrate how crucial it is to be cognizant of what children are learning. Socrates’s position on education is mentioned because it ties into Cephalus’s definition of justice. By failing to give children an objective education then they are faulting on their debts to society by consciously raising a generation that will be more ignorant than the preceding one. In addition, McElroy and the Texas Board are also choosing to not teach children the truth about evolution. Instead they are choosing to pollute the curriculum with unsubstantiated claims that try to “teach young earth creationism through the back door” (Thurman, 14:52). So, when McElroy and members of the board of education fail to teach objective truths they are articulating mendacities and failing to pay their debts; which according to Cephalus’s definition of justice would make McElroy an unjust man.
It is imperative for McElroy and the other board members to give children an objective, truthful, and factual education because it is the only way in which children can be taken out of the dark shadow of ignorance and be brought into the bright light of enlightenment.