Xenophon's Socrates on the Just and the Lawful (original) (raw)

Xenophon presents a discourse involving Socrates and Hippias on the relationship between law and justice, where Socrates asserts that the lawful is just. This prompts a deeper exploration of what is meant by justice, differentiating between written statutes and unwritten, divine laws. The text examines the implications of Socratic thought in the context of legal philosophy and sets the stage for discussions on natural law and its varying interpretations in classical Greek literature. Through analyzing Socrates' claims, the importance of the distinction between different kinds of laws and their philosophical underpinnings in justice is emphasized.