Virtue Essays

4. Plato focuses on the ideas of piety and holiness, virtue and wisdom, laws and justice. In the Euthphyro he is

The other side of the coin is the idea of being unjust, Plato describes this as, “meddling and exchange between these classes, there is the greatest harm…and the worst thing one could do to the city is cause injustice” (434c-pg109). The meddling and exchange between classes refers to the idea of not having specialization, consequently this type of behavior is expressed as harmful, because it leaves room for individuals to produce mediocre abilities.

The Republic by Plato examines many aspects of the human condition. In this piece of writing Plato reveals the sentiments of Socrates as they define how humans function and interact with one another. He even more closely Socrates looks at morality and the values individuals hold most important. One value looked at by Socrates and his colleagues is the principle of justice. Multiple definitions of justice are given and Socrates analyzes the merit of each. As the group defines justice they show how self-interest shapes the progression of their arguments and contributes to the definition of justice.

Answer: Before Socrates gets into these virtues, he explains that the virtues cannot exist unless the city is already "just." Justice has been taken care of. These virtues begin with wisdom which is shown by those "guardians" who oversee the city and who make sure the city runs as it has been designed to run. The second virtue, courage, is shown by those in the city who have to fight for the city if necessary; he calls them auxiliaries. The final virtue, moderation, is one that is demonstrated by all people in the city; this virtue is not characteristic of just one group such as the guardians or the auxiliaries. It is the virtue shown by those who understand how the city is justly governed and all who practice moderation agree with that decision.

For centuries in literature, philosophers studied the idea of virtue to demonstrate the uphold of moral excellence and righteousness within characters. Eventually becoming a staple in Western literature, virtue can be described as the balance and imbalance of qualities specified by the philosopher Plato. He thought much of virtue, and eventually defined it according to the four criteria: courage, prudence, temperance, and justice. Plato portrayed courage as the showing of bravery in the midst of danger, prudence is one’s ability to show good judgment and to put other’s needs before their own; temperance is a person’s knowledge of when to show restraint and justice is when one gives to others what is owed to them. These characteristics not

Since the proper order of the city has now been established, it is time to turn inward to one’s soul to determine where justice and injustice might lie, and what the difference is between the two. Plato believes, “if an individual has these same three parts in his soul, we will expect him to be correctly called by the same names as the city if he has the same conditions in them” (Cahn 148). Now that Plato has found the four virtues within the larger environment of the city, he now wants to investigate their relationship to the smaller environment of the soul.

Plato’s moral theory consisted of the concept of the soul and the concept of virtue as function. To Plato, the soul has three parts; reason, spirit, and appetite. The reason we do things is to reach a goal or value, our spirit drives us to accomplish our goal, and our desire for things is our appetite. The three virtues that must be fulfilled to reach the fourth, general virtue are temperance, courage, and wisdom,

what factors affect them and how. We analyze Plato's expressions and thoughts about what makes us humans. From virtues to building a perfect city, Plato tries to explain in different occasions the morality behind humans. He is focused on understanding the why and how can humans reach their highest potential with the given resources such as nature and others.

The Republic by Plato is about an Socrates’ ideal society, and begins by finding aa definition of what justice is. Socrates and Glaucon discuss “I expect then, to find justice in the following way. I think our city, if indeed it has been correctly founded, is completely good. Yes, it must be. Clearly then, it is wise, courageous, temperate, and just” (Page 112) Socrates, the character who is building the model society, finally figures out how he is going to find justice in Book 4. Socrates determines the city and the soul must contain the four virtues of being wise, courageous, temperate, and just. He needs to define what each of the virtues truly mean. After defining what it means for a city and the soul to be wise, courageous, and temperate, he defines what it means to be just. Socrates defines a just city as, “When moneymaking, auxiliary, and guardian class each do their own work

In the Republic of Plato, the philosopher Socrates lays out his notion of the good, and draws the conclusion that virtue must be attained before one can be good. For Socrates there are two kinds of virtue; collective and individual. Collective virtue is virtue as whole, or the virtues of the city. Individual virtue pertains to the individual himself, and concerns the acts that the individual does, and concerns the individual’s soul. For Socrates, the relationship between individual and collective virtue is that they are the same, as the virtues of the collective parallel those of the Individual. This conclusion can be reached as both the city and the soul deal with the four main virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice.

“Then, under the influence either of poverty or of wealth, workmen and their work are equally liable to degenerate” (Plato 277). On the other hand, poverty causes the craftsmen to develop a rebel attitude. As such, the will resort to evil deeds in order to sustain themselves in the city. Another class in the city is the soldiers. Plato, through his mouthpiece Socrates, argues that the courage of the people of the city lie in their soldiers. However, courage is not a state in which there is lack of fear. Rather it is a state of knowing and persevering in one’s own convictions. However, for this to happen, soldiers need access to good education, which will strengthen their convictions. Education becomes an important part in ensuring that the soldiers understand their role in the city. “Educating [soldiers] in music and gymnastic; we were contriving influences which would prepare them to take the dye of the laws in perfection” (Plato 286). In other words, without education, soldiers would not be able to make decisions that resonate with their beliefs. Thus, lack of fear alone would not serve a full potential as it forms only a smaller portion of what courage constitutes. The third class of the city is the guardians. According to Plato, “Here, then, is a discovery of new evils, I said, against which the guardians will have to watch” (277). Guardians are portrayed as people who have wisdom to watch over

In one of his most widely read texts, the Republic, Plato sets out to explore the very nature of the concept of Justice, the various forms it takes in the world, and its relevance to the lives of men. As Socrates states, it is about “the way we ought to live” (I 352d). The dialogue begins by introducing the commonly held view of justice, via Thrasymachus, Glaucon and Adeimantus, as the non-performance of certain types of unlawful or antisocial acts. However, the entire treatise quickly moves on to concentrate on a different meaning of justice, as a form of moral virtue. He wishes to demonstrate that justice and morality are interconnected because humans can only achieve a good life – which he claims is the best way to live – if they have those things that are desirable in themselves (II 357b). Therefore Plato’s argument, as it sets out to prove the intrinsic value of living a just life, is neither deontological, nor consequentialist. In the Republic, Plato is arguing for the transcendent value of justice as a human good, or virtue, which informs and guides moral conduct.

Socrates attempts to formulate a definition of the word, “moderation,” to investigate how the virtue of moderation comes into play with the human soul. Socrate’s elucidates how moderation is often perceived as “the mastery of certain kinds of pleasures and desires,” and explore how the controller of the weak and strong are both the same person. Consequently Socrates ridicules the word, “self-control.” Just as Thrasymachus argues in Book I that justice is, “the advantage of the stronger,” and whether the people who are actually ruling are those best suited to rule, Plato’s argument also seems to revolve around this concept, as the reader questions whether there is a part of the soul which is naturally suited to rule. To further consider this notion, Socrates discusses how a “master of

workers, so that they do not desire to be in the ruler's position. It is seen

A person’s courage is contained within his spirited element, as a city’s courage was contained within its auxiliaries. A person’s wisdom is contained within the reason that rules over him, as the philosopher king’s ruled over Plato’s city. Temperance was found in the agreement to allow the rationally calculating element to rule over the soul, as the craftsmen and auxiliaries allowed the philosopher kings to rule over them (Plato 145, 442c-d). Justice is each element working in harmony with the rest, never overstepping their bounds, as within the city it was doing one’s own work and not meddling with others. Plato has now shown that each element from the city is also found within the individual in the same context, proving he has found the form of justice.