Republic, Bk. II

Justice and Injustice

Three kinds of goods

1. Something that is good for its own sake, but not good for the sake of something else.

2. Something that is good for its own sake, and good for the sake of something else.

3. Something that is not good for its own sake, but good for the sake of something else.

Justice is commonly believed to be an example of the third kind of good

'They'd say that justice belongs to the onerous kind, and is to be practiced for the sake of the rewards and popularity that come from a reputation for justice, but is to be avoided because of itself as something burdensome.'

The origin and nature of justice

1. 'to do injustice is naturally good and to suffer injustice bad'

2. 'the badness of suffering it so far exceeds the goodness of doing it that those who have done and suffered injustice... but who lack the power to do [injustice] and avoid suffering [injustice], decide that it is profitable to come to an agreement with each other neither to do injustice nor to suffer it.'

3. 'they begin to make laws and covenants, and what the law commands they call lawful and just'

4. 'Justice 'is intermediate between the best and the worst... it is a mean between these two extremes.'

5. 'The best is to do injustice without paying the penalty'.

6. 'the worst is to suffer [injustice] without being able to take revenge'.

7. 'People value [justice] not as a good but because they are too weak to do injustice with impunity'.

8. 'Someone who has the power to [do injustice with impunity]... and is a true man wouldn't make an agreement with anyone not to do injustice in order not to suffer [injustice]. For him this would be madness.'

Argument for the claim that 'to do injustice is naturally good

1. Ring of Gyges

2. 'Let's suppose, then, that there were two such rings, one worn by a just and the other by an unjust person.'

3. 'no one, it seems, would be so uncorruptible that he would stay on the path of justice or stay away from other people's property, when he could take whatever he wanted from the marketplace with impunity, go into people's houses and have sex with anyone he wished, kill or release from prison anyone he wished, and do all the other things that would make him like a god among humans.'

4. '[the just person's] actions would be in no way different from those of an unjust person, and both would follow the same path'

5. "This... is a great proof that one is never just willingly but only when compelled to be.'

6. 'someone who didn't want to do injustice, given this sort of opportunity, and who didn't touch other people's property would be thought wretched and stupid by everyone aware of the situation, though, of course, they'd praise him in public, deceiving each other for fear of suffering injustice'.