PHILOS 3XX3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cephalus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus
26 Oct 2017
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De ning justice: cephalus, telling the truth, repaying one"s debts , polemarchus, giving to each what is owed: bene tting one"s friends and harming one"s enemies , thrasymachus, a sophist, the advantage of the stronger . Thrasymachean justice: justice consists in obedience to the laws, conventionalism, the rulers make laws with a view to advancing their own interests, not those of their subjects. Oligarchs make laws which favour oligarchs, democrats for democrats, etc: in any city, the rulers are the stronger . When you obey laws you"re helping them not yourself: therefore, justice advances the interests of the strong (the rulers) not the agents own interests, 3. Even if rulers aim only to bene t themselves, they will sometimes err about what is to their own advantage when making laws. Hence (i) what the laws decree, and (ii) what is to the advantage of the stronger will sometimes diverge.
