The Republic

7 Pages 1739 Words

man will live happily because he has a just soul, and the man with the unjust soul lives in poverty; therefore, injustice can never be greater than justice. At this point in the novel I saw Thrasymachus’s flaw and also the reason why Socrates has silenced Thrasymachus. Injustice, in my opinion, may be better as a short-term plan for pleasure, but in the long run the unjust man will be condemned by just men of his evil deeds, thus leading to his downfall. This is a point Thrasymachus failed to see, and thus his argument was too unilateral.
After Thrasymachus’s defeat, Glaucon steps up to challenge Socrates. Glaucon’s first argument is that doing injustice and not being punished for it is much more pleasurable than suffering injustice at the hands of unjust rulers and practicing justice. Glaucon’s brother, Adeimantus, backs up his brother’s speech by stating that an unjust man with a deceivably just reputation(which is almost always the trait of the perfectly unjust man) is also better than the just man. But Socrates counters these two strong speeches by proclaiming that, if a man is unjust, he will not only be condemned by men, but by God as well. And e...