Nina Monroe :: essays research papers

Nina Monroe 16 April 2002 Philosophy: Ethics 6. What arguments are offered by Plato and Aristotle that the just life is happier that the unjust one? Do you find these convincing? Why or why not? The Happy Life â€Å"So don’t merely give us a theoretical argument that justice is stronger than injustice, but tell us what each itself does, because of its own powers, to someone who possesses it, and that makes injustice bad and justice good†.1 In this quote from Plato’s Republic, Adeimantus challenges Socrates to demonstrate that justice is good in itself, and ultimately, to prove that the just life is the happiest life for a human being. Both Plato and Aristotle, two of antiquity’s greatest philosophers, concern themselves with the issue of human happiness. Neither thinker considers fate to be the definitive factor for achieving happiness. Rather, Plato and Aristotle argue that our actions and thoughts play a significant role in creating a happy life. This argument, as presented in Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, also asserts that a life in accordance with justice is the happy, or good, life. Thus, tracing each philosopher’s theory of the happy life necessitates a discussion of their definitions of justice. Here too, the two philosophers show a great degree of agreement. Although the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle contain major differences in their fundamental principles, both thinkers take similar stances on the relationship between justice and happiness. Plato, through various Socratic dialogues, chooses to present his definition of justice in the context of a just state, later applying it to the case of a human. In the just state described by Socrates, each individual performs a certain function within society.2 It is in this principle of proper functioning of each part, from which Plato derives a definition of justice. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that Plato was highly critical of Athenian democracy, which encouraged its citizens to try many different professions throughout each of their lives. Plato found that a certain element of conflict or turmoil arises from conditions that promote various parts of a system to meddle with the other parts. Plato’s notion of justice clearly echoes his overall theory of a highest goo d, or the good in itself. The highest good is constituted by something completely above the sensible world, and understood only within the realm of intelligibility. The truths of the intelligible realm are ordered and unchanging.