Plato’s Republic: Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Socrates on What is Justice?

In my section of Book One in Plato’s Republic, Socrates questions two men, Cephalus and Polemarchus, on their opinions of justice (Plato). He does so using the Socratic Method, which is similar to the scientific method, of finding a hypothesis as the one of the steps towards obtaining knowledge, except Socrates’s method tries to shoot down other peoples’ hypotheses to find more credible answers. Always a great questioner, he once said, “I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others” (Biography). He does this quite often during his conversation with Cephalus and Polemarchus until he’s reached a deadlock with both of them. In this paper, I will argue how Plato’s Republic shows that Socrates was a master of argumentation, how he proves to show that justice isn’t the easiest idea to define, and finally some hidden sides to Socrates (Plato).

In the Beginning of Book One, Socrates and a young friend named Glaucon, one of Plato’s brothers, are returning to Athens from a religious festival (Plato). They are stopped by Adamantius, another of Plato’s brothers, and Polemarchus, a young nobleman of Athens, and agree to go to Polemarchus’s house (Plato). When they get to the house, they meet Cephalus, Polemarchus’s elderly father (Plato). As soon as they meet, Cephalus and Socrates go into a discussion on the benefits of old age, having wealth, and later into a discussion on the meaning of what is just (Plato). Cephalus argues that justice is “Speaking the truth and giving back what one takes” (Plato). Socrates counteracts that example by saying “Take weapons away from a friend with a sound mind, don’t give them back when mad. The man who gives them back would be unjust” (Plato). Socrates is arguing that it wouldn’t be smart to give something back just because he legally owns it because giving weapons back to a madman could endanger the lives of others.

Cephalus’s son, Polemarchus, steps into the argument with Socrates after him and his father finish and Cephalus goes to attend to the human sacrifices (Plato). Polemarchus is asked what he considers to be justice and he argues, “That it is just to give each what is owed” (Plato). This slightly refers to a certain golden rule we all know, “Treat others as you want to be treated” and in Polemarchus’s case he wants to treat friends kindly and enemies with harm (Plato). Socrates contradicts with a much longer argument than he had with the young man’s father, but eventually says “Do you mean by friends those who seem to be good to an individual, or those who are even if they don’t seem to be, and similarly with enemies.” And later on after that Socrates said, “But don’t human beings make mistakes about this, so that many seem to them to be good although they are not, and vice versa?” (Plato).