Glaucon explains that justice came to exist not because it's something good to do, but because even though everyone wants to do unjust things, they're terrified of having unjust things done to them.He's going to return to Thrasymachus's line of argumentation and 1) define justice and where it comes from 2) demonstrate that everyone who acts justly does so 'unwillingly, as necessary but not good' (358c) and 3) demonstrate that the unjust are better off than the just. Brain bite! Devil's advocate? That's just a fancy way of saying that someone is going to take an extreme opposite opinion in an argument more for the sake of the argument than because that person truly holds those extreme feelings.Even though he believes justice is better than injustice, he's going to play the devil's advocate and defend injustice. Glaucon really wants to hear Socrates praise justice entirely for its own sake and not for the sake of its consequences.Glaucon says he bets most people would put justice in the third category, since it's something they only do because 1) they think they have to and 2) they want to have a good reputation. Socrates says justice belongs in the second category-the best one, it seems.Socrates agrees with this breakdown, so Glaucon asks him into which category justice would fall.He outlines three ways in which things can be good:ġ) a good everyone likes simply for its own sakeĢ) a good everyone likes both for its own sake and because we get something out of it (like healthy living)ģ) a good everyone likes only because we get something out of it (like wages for work) Glaucon jumps in and wants to talk about the good.Glaucon Describes Justice (Plus: The Story of the Ring) Socrates hopes that the issue of justice has been settled once and for all.

Plato the republic book 3