Book I of Plato's Republic

There really is no easy way to start an entry about Plato and his Republic. Thus far, we've at best begun to think about a definition of justice that will satisfy our fearless conversation leader, while trying to maintain personal composure and a cool head. I, so far, understand what he's getting at, or so I think. Here, I will challenge myself to take another approach to achieve a similar conclusion.


The ever-so-modern dictionary.com provides the technologically savvy human being with several definitions of justice:

jus·tice /ˈdʒʌstɪs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[juhs-tis] –noun

1.	the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold the justice of a cause.

2.	rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of ground or reason: to complain with justice.

3.	the moral principle determining just conduct.

4.	conformity to this principle, as manifested in conduct; just conduct, dealing, or treatment.

5.	the administering of deserved punishment or reward.

6.	the maintenance or administration of what is just by law, as by judicial or other proceedings: a court of justice.

7.	judgment of persons or causes by judicial process: to administer justice in a community.

8.	a judicial officer; a judge or magistrate.

9.	(initial capital letter) Also called Justice Department. the Department of Justice.

—Idioms

10.	bring to justice, to cause to come before a court for trial or to receive punishment for one's misdeeds: The murderer was brought to justice.

11.	do justice, a. to act or treat justly or fairly. b. to appreciate properly: We must see this play again to do it justice. c. to acquit in accordance with one's abilities or potentialities: He finally got a role in which he could do himself justice as an actor.

Now, friends, let's pretend we're Plato and refute everything that is accepted as a definition. (disclaimer: in the interest of time, I will carefully - or randomly - choose a few of these definitions to discuss.)

First and foremost, I will entirely disregard the first definition (and other parts of definitions containing the idea of a presupposed justice), for one certainly cannot define a word or idea by using that same word or idea.

Onto something tangible...

And there we have it. It seems that dictionary.com has defined justice just as well as Plato in his Republic; everyone knows justice, but for one to define it poses a seemingly severe predicament. Perhaps it can be looked at as a tiered structure rather than a social implementation. On the bottom of this - what I imagine to be inverted-cone-shaped and multi-colored - tower is the most personal (smallest), yet most important (strongest), definition of justice, which without no other level can exist. I'll name this tier You - for lack of a better term - or, in other words, a personal set of standards that determine right and wrong. It is here that each person holds their own ideals, virtues, and standards, acting as model to others in their own first tier, and inevitably influencing everything above it. Moving upwards, each tier grows in size, but lessens in strength. The next may be family, a group of people closest to that at the bottom, having similar - but not identical - ideals, values, and standards, yet maintaining a certain structure of morals as a group. The process continues upward accordingly, to social groups, community (which could have a few tiers if we think of community as local-state-national), culture, until it reached the top at the final tier - world. It is here that everyone's values come together, bonding at places and rejecting at others. At some point though, is there one value that everyone holds in common? I'm sure there must be one thing that everyone agrees on to some extent. I think Plato would concede to this being a definite definition of justice, but there is no way of knowing.

There is justice in each of the tiers below, though. It's more, though, of a justice-to-this-point; a compromise, perhaps, of the lower tiers' ideals, values, and standards that that tier can reasonably hold everyone responsible for. Or maybe, just maybe, I entirely missed the boat Plato.