Although many other matters are addressed in the Republic, I think its purpose never strays from answering Glaucon when he asks:
But the case for justice, to prove that it is better than injustice, I have never yet heard stated by any as I desire to hear it. What I desire to is an encomium on justice in and by itself. And I think I am most likely to get that from you."
358d — Valentinus
If it please you, then, let us look for the quality in states, and then only examine it also in the individual, looking for the likeness of the greater in the form of the less. — Valentinus
I didn't expect the Republic to be so interesting, I am up to the point where Socrates is getting weird and talking about how the rulers of state should censor books and fairy tales (???) but hopefully he has a deeper meaning. — Dagny
Justice is a big part of his moral philosophy and does directly deal with statecraft I believe. The tripartite soul is another one that reaches maturity in the Republic and this is more about the individual and morality, which is also an important part of the society. — Jamesk
However, that said, a comparison of the two works might still be interesting in its own right, even if one accepts the objective of each is significantly different from the other. — Mentalusion
I mean this: When a carpenter is ill he asks the physician for a rough
and ready cure; an emetic or a purge or a cautery or the knife,--these
are his remedies. And if some one prescribes for him a course of
dietetics, and tells him that he must swathe and swaddle his head, and
all that sort of thing, he replies at once that he has no time to be
ill, and that he sees no good in a life which is spent in nursing his
disease to the neglect of his customary employment; and therefore
bidding good-bye to this sort of physician, he resumes his ordinary
habits, and either gets well and lives and does his business, or, if
his constitution falls, he dies and has no more trouble. — Socrates
Has he not, I said, an occupation; and what profit would there be in
his life if he were deprived of his occupation? — Socrates
Was Socrates meaning to say that you must either work or die, and if you don't work and aren't a sufficiently contributing member of society, then you are as good as dead? — Dagny
A man, perfect or otherwise, happens with other people. — Valentinus
How is the metaphor convoluted? — Valentinus
When these arguments first appeared, it was life and death. — Valentinus
In short, justice is personal morality wrote large. — vulcanlogician
ideal city — Valentinus
n short, justice is personal morality wrote large.
— vulcanlogician
Brilliant explanation and quote. — Jamesk
No, these have a Form Justice, beauty and goodness in you and me and in society will always be shadows. — Benkei
Because in the beginning Socrates and his interlocutors speak about justice and whether it is better and more profitable to be just or unjust and then Socrates jumps into creating this "State" which with little mention to justice which I believe leaves the reader confused. — Dagny
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