THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

I, 352] HAPPINESS AS VlRTIJOUS ACTIVITY
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make it up,' but does it not necessarily imply that the human soul,
man's vital activity as a whole, is in its best state, or is performing
well the function it is made to perform If by virtue and by happiness
we mean what it seems we do mean, this consequence follows:
when men are agreed that a certain sort of conduct constitutes
virtue, if they mean anything at all, they must mean that in
that conduct man finds happiness. And if a man says that what he
calls virtue has nothing to do with what he calls happiness or wellbeing,
then either in calling the one virtue he does not really mean
what he says, or in calling the other happiness he does not really
mean what he says. This is substantially the position that Plato
takes up in this section: (Lectures on Plato's Republic, p. 42.)]
You will make my enjoyment complete, I replied, if you will
answer my further questions in the same way. We have made out
so far that just men are superior in character and intelligence and
more effective in action. Indeed without justice men cannot act
together at all; it is not strictly true to speak of such people as
ever having effected any strong action in common. Had they been
thoroughly unjust, they could not have kept their hands off one
another; they must have had some justice in them, enough to
keep them from injuring one another at the same time with their
victims. This it was that enabled them to achieve what they did
achieve: their injustice only partially incapacitated them for their
careeer of wrongdoing; if perfect, it would have disabled them tor
any action whatsoever. I can see that all this is true, as against
your original position. But there is a further question which we
postponed: Is the life of justice the better and happier life What
we have said already leaves no doubt in my mind; but we ought
to consider more carefully, for this is no light matter: it is the
question, what is the right way to live
Go on, then.
I will, said I. Some things have a function; 1 a horse, for instance,
1 The word translated 'function' is the common word for 'work: Hence the need
for illustrations to confine it to the narrower sense of 'function,' here defined for
~ first time.