Plato's Introduction to the Question of Justice

Devin Stauffer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kenyon College.

• Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Opening of the Question of Justice: Socrates' Exchanges with Cephalus and Polemarchus Socrates' Objection to Cephalus' View of JusticePolemarchus' Defense of His Inheritance and the Question of Owed and FittingSocrates' Three-Part Critique of Justice as Helping Friends and Harming Enemies 2. Thrasymachus and the Question of the Goodness of Justice The Opening Exchange Between Thrasymachus and SocratesThrasymachus' Definition of JusticeRulers in the Strict SenseThrasymachus' Attack on Justice: The Shephard Speech and Its AftermathSocrates' Three-Argument Defense of Justice 3. Glaucon and Adeimantus and Justice as the Proper Order of the Soul Glaucon's and Adeimantus' SpeechesJustice as the Proper Order of the Soul Conclusion Bibliography Index

"This book provides a truly illuminating interpretation of the foundations of the Platonic analysis of justice in the Republic. The crucial arguments in Book One of the Republic are explicated with meticulous attention to detail, and the far-reaching implications are spelled out with thought-provoking clarity. This book will prove an indispensable guide to that much read and much studied classic text." — Thomas L. Pangle, coauthor of Justice Among Nations: On the Moral Basis of Power and Peace"Stauffer's introduction engages the reader's serious concern from the start by exploring the shortcomings of postmodern approaches to justice, elaborating the stronger approach of Kant while showing what reasonable considerations it excludes, and so leading back to Plato's inquiry as a promising alternative. This book is uncommonly well-written and powerfully argued." — James H. Nichols, Jr., translator of Plato's Gorgias"Stauffer brings extraordinary clarity and dazzling insight to a seemingly familiar text. I have studied and taught the Republic, especially Book One, for over twenty years and Stauffer's book has taught me to see that book afresh. It has revealed to me wholly new dimensions of the dialogue." — Peter J. Ahrensdorf, author of The Death of Socrates and the Life of Philosophy: An Interpretation of Plato's Phaedo