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Chapter 5 - No One Rules Willingly (343b1–348b7)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2025

Roslyn Weiss
Affiliation:
Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
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Summary

This chapter considers Thrasymachus’ cynical rant, in which “the stronger” emerge as unjust men who think “night and day” about nothing other than their own advantage: No longer like unerring craftsmen, rulers are rather like other unjust men; the tyrant is revealed as Thrasymachus’ ideal. This chapter further probes what Socrates might mean by his odd claim that no one – not even good and decent men – rules willingly: If it is the work of good and just men to benefit others, do the reluctant rulers of Book 1, so similar to Rep. 7’s philosophers who have to be compelled to rule, qualify as just?

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Justice in Plato's Republic
The Lessons of Book 1
, pp. 122 - 147
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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