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The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a

The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a

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4 Giving What is Owed<br />

See 331c-332b. Socrates wonders if Cephalus’ ideas about rewards and<br />

punishments in the afterlife are based upon a true conception of justice, and he<br />

indicates a willingness <strong>to</strong> explore the matter. Cephalus, however, would rather<br />

return <strong>to</strong> the public celebration, and so he hands the conversation over <strong>to</strong> his eldest<br />

son Polemarchus who is eager <strong>to</strong> continue. As a starting point, Polemarchus<br />

proposes a definition offered by the poet Simonides: justice is giving <strong>to</strong> each what<br />

is owed <strong>to</strong> him. This doesn’t mean that justice requires returning a borrowed<br />

weapon <strong>to</strong> a dangerously insane friend. It means, he thinks, that <strong>to</strong> our friends we<br />

owe “something good . . . never something bad,” but <strong>to</strong> our enemies we owe<br />

“something bad.”<br />

Is justice “<strong>to</strong> give <strong>to</strong> each what is owed <strong>to</strong> him”?<br />

Polemarchus thinks we owe friends and enemies completely different things.<br />

Do you agree? What about other differences between people? Do husbands<br />

owe different things <strong>to</strong> wives than wives owe husbands? Do children owe<br />

different things <strong>to</strong> adults than adults owe children? Do we owe our children<br />

different things than we owe other people’s children? Do we owe older<br />

people different things than we owe younger people? Do we owe our<br />

neighbors different things than we owe people in faraway lands?<br />

It is sometimes said that justice requires us <strong>to</strong> treat people equally. What<br />

does this mean? Is it true?<br />

Is there anything that we owe <strong>to</strong> each and every person?<br />

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