Socrates as Teacher of Justice

Thrasymachus had praised the life of injustice over the life of justice, the latter, according to him, being fit only for the foolish and the weak. In the last three books of the Republic, Socrates turns to consider injustice and so prepares the way for his own comparison of justice with injustice, which constitutes his final answer to Thrasymachus. We will begin with Socrates’s vivid portrait of one of the defective kinds of regimes, namely democracy, and then turn to his comparison of the life of injustice at its peak, the life of the tyrant, with that of the life of justice at its peak, the life of the philosopher. Finally, we will look in some detail at the beautiful and quite powerful myth with which the Republic ends, the Myth of Er, the purpose of which is to strengthen the case for justice and leading a just life.

English
  • Runtime 30 minutes
  • Production Company The Great Courses
  • Created May 20, 2022 by
    shunsuke218
  • Modified May 20, 2022 by
    shunsuke218