From Ethics To Politics

The idea of justice is a dominant principle in early Platonic philosophy. The Republic includes Plato's systematic account of Justice.Both early Platonic ethical and political philosophy take root in the account of justice. It is a main criterion for Plato to evaluate the values in the physical world. The complexity that the idea of justice can be viewed as both ethical criterion and city order makes study hard. Above all, this article assumes that the questions which Socrates faces and the strategies which he gives to correspond to the questions as the most important path to the study of Platonic account of justice, only by this path won't we have a departure from Plato's real thought. Second, I assume that Plato's politics in The Republic stems from the ethics of the book, especially Platonic 'three-classes of soul' thought. The article attempts to find some fresh views about details of Platonic idea of justice in a systematic analysis to Plato's account of justice.All of the article is based on The Republic. According to the two assumptions above, there are three parts in this article.Part I: To clear up the real question that Socrates faces and to explain why Socrates make use of analogy between city justice and civil justice to discuss justice.Part II: To understand the structure of human soul fully and profoundly is the first step of study Platonic justice. So, this section may mainly aim at the investigation of the'smaller inscription'——human justice. First, we explain why Plato divide soul into three classes and the problems the division involves. Then, we discuss the traditional four virtues' proper definition and the relation among them, after that we may jump into the question about the relationship between justice as a virtue and just action. At last, we consider the giant problem that how harmony of justice relate to happy living and how a soul with justice can bring human happiness.Part III: After Plato's ethical account of justice, we go ahead to study Plato's political account of justice——the'larger inscription'in The Republic. Platonic Utopia is no doubt the pioneer of the communism that people dreamed of. And at the same time his thought attracts lots of criticism, typically including the criticism on Utopianism, Communism, Feminism, Totalitarianism etc. Study these criticism can help us to know much more Platonic idea of justice.