Justice -- Early works to 1800; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Utopias -- Early works to 1800
How good of you, I said; but I should like to know also whether
injustice, having this tendency to arouse hatred, wherever existing,
among slaves or among freemen, will not make them hate one another and
set them at variance and render them incapable of common action?
Certainly.
And even if injustice be found in two only, will they not quarrel and
fight, and become enemies to one another and to the just.
They will.
And suppose injustice abiding in a single person, would your wisdom say
that she loses or that she retains her natural power?
Let us assume that she retains her power.
Yet is not the power which injustice exercises of such a nature that
wherever she takes up her abode, whether in a city, in an army, in a
family, or in any other body, that body is, to begin with, rendered
incapable of united action by reason of sedition and distraction; and
does it not become its own enemy and at variance with all that opposes
it, and with the just? Is not this the case?
Yes, certainly.
And is not injustice equally fatal when existing in a single person; in
the first place rendering him incapable of action because he is not at
unity with himself, and in the second place making him an enemy to
himself and the just? Is not that true, Thrasymachus?
Yes.
And O my friend, I said, surely the gods are just?
Granted that they are.
But if so, the unjust will be the enemy of the gods, and the just will
be their friend?
Feast away in triumph, and take your fill of the argument; I will not
oppose you, lest I should displease the company.
Well then, proceed with your answers, and let me have the remainder of
my repast. For we have already shown that the just are clearly wiser
and better and abler than the unjust, and that the unjust are incapable
of common action; nay ing at more, that to speak as we did of men who
are evil acting at any time vigorously together, is not strictly true,
for if they had been perfectly evil, they would have laid hands upon
one another; but it is evident that there must have been some remnant
of justice in them, which enabled them to combine; if there had not
been they would have injured one another as well as their victims; they
were but half--villains in their enterprises; for had they been whole
villains, and utterly unjust, they would have been utterly incapable of
action. That, as I believe, is the truth of the matter, and not what
you said at first. But whether the just have a better and happier life
than the unjust is a further question which we also proposed to
consider. I think that they have, and for the reasons which to have
given; but still I should like to examine further, for no light matter
is at stake, nothing less than the rule of human life.
Proceed.
I will proceed by asking a question: Would you not say that a horse
has some end?
I should.
And the end or use of a horse or of anything would be that which could
not be accomplished, or not so well accomplished, by any other thing?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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