On The Theory Of Justice In Plato's Republic

Plato's Republic is a well-known Western book which systematically studies the issue of justice.At present,there are some new disputes in the understanding and elucidation of Plato's justice.Bernard Williams believes that a just city-state is a paradox composed of a large number of unjust people due to the analogy between city-state and soul,which causes the problem of unity between just city-state and just individual.David Sachs points out that there is a logical break between Plato's justice and vulgar justice.Through careful reading of relevant studies and strictly based on the text of the Republic,this paper finds that Williams erroneously infers the whole-part rule from the quality of the city-state which must originate from the quality of the individual,and uses this rule to explain the quantitative differences between the city-state and the individual in the specific quality.And the unity between the just city-state and the just individual is based on the idea of justice.As for Sachs' criticism,this paper argues that Sachs emphasizes the difference more between justice itself and the things of justice,but neglects the original connection between them,because the basis of justice must be given by justice itself,and justice itself is pure and perfect.Once it is mixed with other things,there must be subtlety differences,but cannot be regarded as absolute and irrelevant.Justice itself achieves its reality by establishing an ideal city-state through the soul of justice.Finally,this paper will try to prove that the establishment of an ideal city-state is the way in which the truth of justice occurs and operates,because Man is in the truth,and the creation of an ideal country is based on justice as its fundamental virtue,because it has an intrinsic connection with goodness itself,which is the key to understanding Plato's justice itself and the possible precondition for the analogy between soul and city-state.