Contents
          1	Introduction / 2 The Timaeus on dignity: the Demiurge’s speech 	/ 3 Justice as a virtue / 4	The content of just actions / 5 Justice of the law and justice of the state / 6 Equality / 7 Some key issues in Plato’s conception of justice / 7.1	   What is more excellent—justice of the soul or justice of action? / 7.2	Which activity is best and what is its best object? 	/ 7.2. Just actions over contemplation / 7.2. The Timaeus and Plato’s teaching on justice / 7.2. The elderly Cephalus on justice: foreword as epilogue /  7.3 The sharing of wives: testing the interpretation on a ‘hard case’ / 8 Conclusion

Piechowiak, Marek

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Marek Piechowiak          Plato’s Conception of Justice  and the Question  of Human Dignity   Second Edition, Revised and Extended         Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche  Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de.  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.  This project was financed with funds from the National Science Centre (Poland) under grant number DEC-2013/09/B/HS5/04232. This Publication has been financially supported by the  SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw.      Cover Design: © Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg Cover Image: © Marek Piechowiak ISSN 2510-5353 ISBN 978-3-631-84524-0 (Print) ∙ E-ISBN 978-3-631-84544-8 (E-PDF)  E-ISBN 978-3-631-84841-8 (EPUB) ∙ E-ISBN 978-3-631-84842-5 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/b18092 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2021 All rights reserved. Peter Lang – Berlin ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙ Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien  First edition published 2019 Second edition published 2021 (revised and extended) All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilization outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com ContentsForeword to the second edition  ..............................................................   15Preface  ......................................................................................................................   16 1 Introduction  ....................................................................................................   17 1.1 What this book is about  ..............................................................................   17 1.2 Dignity as a fundamental value in law  ....................................................   17 1.3 Why Plato?  .....................................................................................................   19 1.4 Objectives  .......................................................................................................   22 1.5 Interpreting Plato  .........................................................................................   28 1.6 The structure of this book  ...........................................................................   31 2 The Timaeus on dignity: the Demiurge’s speech ...................   35 2.1 The Timaeus as a dialogue on justice  .......................................................   35 2.2 Formal aspects of the text  ...........................................................................   39 2.3 The complexity and mortality of the soul  ...............................................   40 2.4 Dignity as existential perfection  ...............................................................   41 2.5 Prohibition on instrumental treatment  ...................................................   43 2.6 Human beings and the gods  .......................................................................   46 2.7 The human being in relation to the whole  .............................................   47 3 Justice as a virtue  .........................................................................................   53 3.1 Introductory remarks ...................................................................................   53 3.2 Some terminological issues  ........................................................................   54 3.3 Justice and happiness—justice as the most important of  all matters  .......................................................................................................   58 3.3.1 Justice as the subject of the best possible art  .................................   58 3.3.2 The greatest evil and the greatest good  ...........................................   59Contents8 3.3.3 Utility as the foundation of one’s good  ...........................................   62 3.4 Traditional formulae describing just actions  ........................................    64 3.5 The Republic as a dialogue on the individual  ........................................    67 3.6 The model of the state and the teaching of virtues  .............................    69 3.6.1 Improvement of man  ...........................................................................    69 3.6.1.1 Socratic questions  ..................................................................    69 3.6.1.2 Is the soul simple or complex?  ...........................................    75 3.6.1.3 How to find justice in the state  ..........................................    79 3.6.2 Wisdom  ..................................................................................................    80 3.6.3 Courage  ..................................................................................................    83 3.6.3.1 Common understanding of courage  .................................    83 3.6.3.2 The specificity of Plato’s approach  ....................................    84 3.6.3.3 ‘What things are to be feared’ and human freedom  .....    86 3.6.4 Moderation  ............................................................................................    89 3.6.5 Justice in the model of the state  .......................................................    91 3.6.5.1 Introduction  ............................................................................    91 3.6.5.2 What justice in the state is  ..................................................    92 3.6.5.3 Weakness of the evidence  ......................................................  94 3.6.5.4 Beyond triviality  ....................................................................    95 3.6.5.5 Happiness of the state or happiness of  the individual? ........................................................................    96 3.7 What in truth is justice? .............................................................................    97 3.7.1 Description of justice  ..........................................................................    97 3.7.2 Justice in the model of the state as εἴδωλον—a phantom of justice  ......................................................................................................  100 3.7.3 The Phaedrus and the model of the state in the Republic ............  104 3.7.3.1 Discourse in ink and discourse in the soul  ......................  104 3.7.3.2 The subject of inner discourse and the aim of knowledge  ...............................................................................  107 3.7.4 Justice as the internal unity and health of the soul  .....................  108 3.7.5 Versatility of the just man ..................................................................  110 3.7.6 Unity of virtues in just actions  .........................................................  117Contents 9 4 The content of just actions  ...................................................................  121 4.1 Socrates talks to himself about justice  ....................................................  121 4.1.1 Preliminary remarks  ...........................................................................  121 4.1.2 The form of the argument  ..................................................................  123 4.1.3 Detailed analyses  .................................................................................  127 4.1.4 The ‘head’ of Socrates’ conversation about justice  ......................  131 4.1.5 A difficult step in the argument and Plato’s teaching on the Good  ........................................................................................................  133 4.1.5.1 From the justice in the soul to the justice of actions  ....  133 4.1.5.2 Shadows and statues of justice  ...........................................  134 4.1.5.3 The Good  .................................................................................  135 4.1.5.4 Education  .................................................................................  138 4.1.5.5 Reconsidering the difficulties in the argumentation in the Gorgias  .........................................................................  142 4.1.6 Further applications  ............................................................................  144 4.2 Negative and positive characteristics of just actions  ..........................  145 4.2.1 The harm principle  ..............................................................................  145 4.2.2 Just actions as something beneficial for others  ............................  148 5 Justice of the law and justice of the state  ..................................  153 5.1 Foundations  ...................................................................................................  153 5.2 The wisdom and freedom to shape one’s life and Plato’s alleged totalitarianism  ..............................................................................................  157 5.2.1 Converging arguments against Plato’s totalitarianism  ...............  157 5.2.2 Wisdom as the knowledge that oversees just actions  .................  161 5.2.3 The failure of Isaiah Berlin’s argument  ..........................................  162 5.2.4 Freedom to shape one’s own life  ......................................................  167 5.2.4.1 Short-term life planning  ......................................................  167 5.2.4.2 Long-term life planning  .......................................................  168 5.2.5 Concluding remarks  ............................................................................  173Contents10 5.3 Punitive justice  .............................................................................................  173 5.3.1 Preliminary remarks  ...........................................................................  173 5.3.2 Rhetoric as a counterfeit of punitive justice  ..................................  174 5.3.3 The principal aims of punishment  ...................................................  177 5.3.4 The health of the soul as the foundation of justice  ......................  179 5.3.5 Equality of proportions as a basis for the determination of punishment ............................................................................................  180 5.3.6 Injustice which punishment cannot repair  ....................................  182 5.3.7 The inevitability of punishment by the gods and two aims of the law  ...............................................................................................  185 5.3.8 Civil law aspects of punishment  ......................................................  186 5.3.9 Concluding remarks  ............................................................................  187 6 Equality  .............................................................................................................  189 6.1 Initial remarks  ..............................................................................................  189 6.2 Equality in dignity  .......................................................................................  189 6.3 Proportionate equality as a basis for shaping actions .........................  191 6.3.1 Preliminary remarks  ...........................................................................  191 6.3.2 Arithmetic equality  .............................................................................  192 6.3.3 Geometric equality as the foundation of true justice  ..................  193 6.3.4 Aristotle’s continuation of Plato’s teaching on geometric proportion  ..............................................................................................  198 6.3.5 Concluding remarks  ............................................................................  201 6.4 Justice and friendship  .................................................................................  201 6.4.1 Preliminary remarks  ...........................................................................  201 6.4.2 Friendship with oneself  ......................................................................  202 6.4.3 Equality as the foundation of friendship  ........................................  203 6.4.4 Friendship as an aim of laws  .............................................................  204 6.4.5 Non-violence in implementing justice  ............................................  207 6.4.6 Justice in giving and receiving  .........................................................  209 6.4.7 Concluding remarks  ............................................................................  211Contents 11 7 Some key issues in Plato’s conception of justice  .................  213 7.1 What is more excellent—justice of the soul or justice of action?  .....  213 7.2 Which activity is best and what is its best object?  ..............................  219 7.2.1 Preliminary remarks  ...........................................................................  219 7.2.2 What is a proper object of love? What is a proper object of just actions?  ...........................................................................................  220 7.2.2.1 Abstract form or concrete individual—challenging Gregory Vlastos  .....................................................................  220 7.2.2.2 Engendering and birth as an aim of love  .........................  222 7.2.2.3 Loving imperfect creatures  .................................................  223 7.2.2.4 Loving an individual  .............................................................  223 7.2.3 Just actions over contemplation  .......................................................  225 7.2.3.1 Back home from the top of the heavens—what are the souls free of mortal deficiency doing?  .......................  225 7.2.3.2 Back to the cave from the light of the sun—what is the use of abstract forms?  ...................................................  228 7.2.3.3 What does the Good do?  .....................................................  231 7.2.4 The Timaeus and Plato’s teaching on justice  .................................  233 7.2.5 The elderly Cephalus on justice: foreword as epilogue  ..............  238 7.2.6 Closing remarks  ...................................................................................  240 7.3 The sharing of wives: testing the interpretation on a ‘hard case’  ....  240 7.3.1 Preliminary remarks  ...........................................................................  240 7.3.2 The dolphin of Arion—an introduction by Plato’s Socrates  .......  242 7.3.3 Not ‘geometrical’ but ‘erotic necessities’  .......................................  243 7.3.4 Some instructions on how to read Plato  ........................................  248 7.3.5 What can be gained from the discussion about women?  ...........  249 7.3.5.1 Fundamental equality of the sexes  ....................................  249 7.3.5.2 No justification for subordinating weaker minds to stronger ones  ..........................................................................  251 7.3.5.3 The highest standards of friendship  ..................................  252 7.3.5.4 How to establish friendship in the soul  ...........................  254 7.3.6 Closing remarks  ...................................................................................  255Contents12 8 Conclusions  ....................................................................................................  257 8.1 Dignity  ...........................................................................................................  257 8.2 Justice of the soul .........................................................................................  259 8.3 Justice of actions  ..........................................................................................  261 8.4 Justice of laws and the state  ......................................................................  263Bibliography  .......................................................................................................  267 I Works of Plato  ..............................................................................................  267 a Collections  ..................................................................................................  267 b Dialogues  ....................................................................................................  267 II References  .....................................................................................................  269Indexes  ....................................................................................................................  281Index Locorum  .....................................................................................................  283General Index  .......................................................................................................  293

Plato's Conception of Justice and the Question of Human Dignity: Second Edition, Revised and Extended

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Plato's Conception of Justice and the Question of Human Dignity: Second Edition, Revised and Extended

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