POLI 100 Lecture Notes - Techne, Political Ethics, Thrasymachus
Document Summary
Poli 100, jan. 2005 lecture 2 & 3. Theme of the course: the relationship between justice and power in politics. Plato the republic, book i: brief background, socrates/ thrasymachus debate climax of bk. Socrates (plato) & simonides: that it is just to give each what is owed to him (p. 6, 331e). Surely, socrates (plato) is right, in a way . Plato conceives politics in terms of ruling and ruling well. Thrasymachus (i): justice is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger (p. 14, 338c) Don"t you know that some cities are ruled by a tyranny, some by a democracy, and some by an aristocracy. And each makes laws to its own advantage. Democracy makes democratic laws, tyranny makes tyrannical laws, and so on with the others. What is to their own advantage to be just for their subjects, and they punish anyone who goes against this as lawless and unjust (pp.
