Platos Form of Good and Justice - Essay Example

Plato’s Form of Good/Justice In Plato’s philosophy, there is a prominent place that is given to the idea of justice. He was highly dissatisfied with the conditions that were prominent in Athens. The democracy here was failing and it was heading to ruins. He thus characterized his own concept of justice by bashing the notions that were held by the likes of Glaucons and Adeimantus. This paper will look into the concept of the good of justice in and of itself as challenged. It will also focus on the Good of the Soul, its three form nature and immortality.

Glaucon on justice presupposes that human good is made of a combination of power, wealth and pleasure and because these are limited, there have to be a competition among men for them. He says that it is natural for one to pursue what he sees as good. He comes up with the theory of Social contract. Socrates refutes the social contract and the bases of Glaucon’s argument by saying that the ultimate source of value is not found in nature and not in the human notion of social contract but it is a notion grasped by the intellect that is enlightened, which is the Form of Good.

From his arguments he comes with the prospect of the good of the soul where he says that the soul is tripartite in nature and also that it is immortal and when one dies, their soul lives on. He used the three elements of the soul to explain how the society should be and the concept of Justice and Good is elaborated. This reasoning according to me it is very valid. It gives a reasoned version of what Good is and the concept of Justice coupled with Good. It gives the basis of what Plato was later to conceive as the Form of Good/Justice.