Topic > Importance of justice in Book II of Plato's Republic
It is somewhere between the best and the worst. Everyone's inclination is to commit an injustice without paying any price for this action, the worst is to suffer an injustice without being able to take revenge (37). It therefore follows that justice becomes a middle ground between these two extreme scenarios. Most people will tend to value justice not because it is a good in itself, but because they lack the ability to commit injustice without negative consequences. An individual who possesses the capacity to practice injustice without consequences will therefore never voluntarily enter into an agreement not to commit injustice for the simple proclamation of not suffering it. For a man like this it would truly be madness.
tags