Justice And Regime: A Study On The Concept Of Justice In Ancient Greece And Athens

As for human beings, the pursuit of justice has never stopped. The discussion on the justice theory, the principle of justice and the implementation of justice has deeply influenced the development of human beings. It is the basic problem of the discussion for the thinkers, and also the problem that the politicians are dedicated to solve.Ancient Greece is the cradle of Western civilization as well as the origin of justice. Discussion on the question of justice must be traced to ancient Greece where Athens is the most representative city.The formation of the ancient Greek civilization has directly inherited the civilization achievements of Minoan and Mycenaean, and also influenced by the civilization of ancient Egypt and Asia Minor in many respects. Its justice in the name of God actually results from these multiple factors.Athens is one of the most typical cities in development of the ancient Greek. It is the first country in the world to establish democracy. With the crisis of Athens political system, it experienced Solon of many cities and then took the banner of reform in Athens. He was influenced by the prevalence of natural justice thoughts, and put forward that justice is "deserve", under which he makes reform, opening the development course of the Athenian democracy. Thus, in the process of development of democracy in Solon, ancient Greek justice plays an important leading role.Justice thoughts has run through the Athenian democracy development, from sprout to establishment and from flourishing to decline. With the progress of the Athenian democracy, justice has been supported and realized. In early phase of the establishment of Athenian democracy, justice and democracy match and benefit each other. Along with the development of the Athenian society, inherent contradictions of democracy were gradually exposed. The death of Socrates thoroughly exposed the contradiction of Athenian democracy and justice. With the continuous development of Athenian society, democracy ultimately stepped to decline and death.The death of Socrates greatly shocked Plato. Then Plato began to make reflection of Athenian democratic system and put forward his theory of justice. He thought that only under the rule of "philosophy king ", justice could be truly realized. But Plato’s pursuit for “Utopia” has fragmented ideality and reality. Lack of sufficient reality basis and having not practical environment to be realized, his thought had to compromise to reality. Plato’s three trips to Sicily announced the bursting of Plato’s "ideal country".Justice is a kind of value and political philosophy. Democracy is a political system. Justice and democracy are unified at some point and sometimes contradictory. Democracy was for the majority of people and to benefit them. But when the democracy system voted by the majority cannot meet the value pursuit of justice, the contradiction between justice and democracy appeared. Facing this situation, Plato put forward his idea: only the country governed by “philosophy king”, can justice be actually realized. This was the relationship of the realization of justice and democracy in Athens under the social environment at that time.The concept of justice in Athens had a significant impact on the development of Western political thought. The Study on the relationship of Athenian justice and democracy would greatly influence the development and the realization of justice.