The Division of Goods and Praising Justice for Itself in Republic II

Bibliographic Data

ID11585642
AuthorsAndrew Payne (0000-0002-1936-8062, 1Philosophy Department, Saint Joseph’s University 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131-1395 USA, Email: [email protected], corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume56
Issue1
Pages58-78
Publication date2011-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhronesis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8868 • E-ISSN: 1568-5284
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/156852811x540428
OpenAlexW1964888156
LanguageEN
Citations received1

In Republic II Glaucon assigns to Socrates the task of praising justice for itself. What it means to praise justice for itself is unclear. A new interpretation is offered on the basis of an analysis of Glaucon’s division of goods. A distinction is developed between criterial benefits, those valuable consequences of a thing which provide a standard for evaluating a thing as a good instance of its type, and fringe benefits, valuable consequences which do not provide such a standard. Socrates is expected to praise justice by describing the benefits it constitutes as a valuable activity of soul. He may also use the criterial benefits of justice but not its fringe benefits. This account of Socrates’ task is superior to those interpretations which rule out all use of valuable consequences in praising justice and to those interpretations which fail to preserve the distinction between the second and third classes of goods

Ancient philosophy · Economic Justice · Economics · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Law and economics · Management · Political science · Praise · SOCRATES · Soul · Task (project management · The Republic · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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