Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 12-1981 Plato's Theory of Social Justice in Republic II-IV Edward Nichols Lee University of California - San Diego,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Lee, Edward Nichols, "Plato's Theory of Social Justice in Republic II-IV" (1981). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 120. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/120 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter by an authorized administrator of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact
[email protected]. f J t u a r l tJ. Lee^ W i Y re t* \ - Piulo} A PLATO'S THEORY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IN REPUBLIC II-IV "Actions speak louder than words." (Old saying) After his long construction of a "city in speech" throughout Books II-IV of the Republic, Plato finally presents, as his long sought-for definition of social justice, the enigmatic and ambiguous formula, "each one doing his own." My main aim in this paper will be to search out the sense that he has esta blished for that definition: to show how he thinks he has established (by the time he unveils it) that that unlikely formula is in fact a reasonable defini tion of social justice, and to analyze what it means (Sections I-III).