Plato and His Search for Justice (original) (raw)

The search for the concept of justice in a multitude of forms has been the highlight of Platonic thoughts and scholarship. According to ancient and classical Greek jurisprudence, Socrates had made it the focus of his arguments to seek the quintessence of justice and after his death, that task became the raison d'être of Plato, the most renowned among the Socratic disciples. The creation of the ideal state based on the hallmark of justice was the Socratic dream, which Plato sought to achieve and substantiate in his own manner of arguments, characterized with an amalgamation of logical precision and philosophical brilliance. He traced the contours of complexities of the roles of the individuals and groups of citizens, created the allegory of the Cave in an erudite attempt to emphasize the necessity for virtues and by means of his Theory of Forms and Theory of Souls, laid down the framework of which on which the ideal city-state should rest. The paper also describes the modification made by Aristotle in Platonic theories and the manner in which the said theories have been subjected to changes in course of time. The paper concludes with the author's interpretation of Plato's primary and secondary goals in penning creations such as the Republic, degree of success attained by him in course of his quest and the criticisms leveled against his approach by contemporary and later scholars.