Power or Virtue: the question of Justice, Philosophy

The Unequal World of Power and Justice

The debate between Thrasymachus and Socrates, in Book I of the Republic, is a debate between the power philosopher and the philosopher-king. Thrasymachus divides the world among power lines, and states that power makes people unequal. He defines Justice as:
nothing other than the advantage of the strong (338c)…Each makes laws to its own advantage. Democracy makes democratic laws; tyranny makes tyrannical laws, and so on with the others. And they declare what they have made – what is to their own advantage – to be just for their subjects, and they punish anyone who goes against this as unjust. This, then, is what I say justice is, the same in all cities, the advantage of the established rule (339a).”
The strong rule because they have the power. The weak serve because they have no recourse. Torn between the strong and the weak, we ask, “What is justice? What is just rule?”
The opening scene of Book I, Socrates and his friend Gla...