Plato and Common Morality

Classical Quarterly 28 (02):437- (1978)
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Abstract

In the Republic, Socrates undertakes to defend justice as being in itself a benefit to its possessor. Does he do this, or does he change the subject? In a well-known article, David Sachs pointed out that there seems to be a shift in what Plato is defending. The challenge to Socrates is put by Thrasymachus, who admires the successful unjust man, and by Glaucon and Adeimantus, who do not, but are worried that justice has no adequate defence against Thrasymachus. In all these passages justice is discussed in terms of the non-performance of actions which are regarded as unjust according to common morality; Sachs calls this common concept of ordinary justice ‘vulgar justice’

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Julia Annas
University of Arizona

Citations of this work

La interpretación platónica del desafío inmoralista.Javier Echenique - 2025 - Anales Del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 42 (1):1-11.
Moral realism in Spinoza's Ethics.Colin Marshall - 2017 - In Yitzhak Y. Melamed, Cambridge Critical Guide to Spinoza’s Ethics. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 248-65.
A Multiform Desire.Olof Pettersson - 2013 - Dissertation, Uppsala University
Ausland/Sanday Bibliography.Editors Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy - 2013 - Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 28 (1):36-39.

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References found in this work

The Psychology of Justice in Plato.John M. Cooper - 1977 - American Philosophical Quarterly 14 (2):151 - 157.
Socrates and Thrasymachus.F. E. Sparshott - 1966 - The Monist 50 (3):421-459.
A fallacy in Plato's republic?Raphael Demos - 1964 - Philosophical Review 73 (3):395-398.
Virtues and actions.N. J. H. Dent - 1975 - Philosophical Quarterly 25 (101):318-335.
Moral weakness.Steven Lukes - 1965 - Philosophical Quarterly 15 (59):104-114.

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