visit by Socrates to the Piraeus leads to a discussion at the house of Cephalus - a very old wealthy immigrant arms-manufacturer - on the subject of Justice: i.e how is the good man supposed to behave? The Greek word for "good" (agathos) implies "good at doing something". (A good pen is one that does its job. It writes. A good man is good at doing whatever it is that a man is supposed to do! )
hree popular definitions are brought up -
- Justice is "paying one's debts" (Cephalus);
- Justice is "helping friends and harming enemies" (Polemarchus - Cephalus' son); - the view, I'd suppose, of the Greek "man in the street."
- Justice is "whatever is to the advantage of the stronger" (in other words whatever the strong person can get away with - he defines his own justice) - this is forcefully argued by the sophist Thrasymachus.
Socrates demolishes all the arguments - but Glaucon (one of Plato's brothers who was present at this fictitious discussion) doesn't believe that Thasymachus's argument has really been refuted: what is the point in being good?
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