Glaucon is the first speaker in Book II of the Republic. He maintains that three categories of goods exist. The first category comprises goods which are desirable for the sake of themselves, and not for any reward or consequence arising from the possession of those goods.
These goods include harmless pleasures and delights. The second category comprises goods which are desirable for their own sake and for the sake of their results. These goods include knowledge, sight, and health. the third category comprises goods which are desirable for the sake of their consequences but are undesirable in themselves these goods include gymnastics and ways of making money glaucon asks socrates which category justice belongs in socrates answers that justice is of the highest category justice is desirable in itself and for the sake of its rewards though glaucon agrees with socrates he asserts that the majority of people place justice in the lowest category among goods desirable for their rewards and results but not desirable in themselves and rather to be avoided glaucon decides to argue on the behalf of the people who criticise justice so that socrates can definitively refute their argument glaucon promises to make three arguments first he will demonstrate the nature and origin of justice second he will prove that men behave according to justice against their own will third he will argue that the unjust life is better than the just life Glaucon describes that when men have done evil and suffered evil, they agree among themselves to have neither. The laws which are agreed upon and ordained are deemed just and lawful.
This is the nature and origin of justice. The origin is the experience of doing and suffering evil and an agreement to have neither. The nature of justice is a mean between the best and worst.
The best is to do evil with impunity and the worst is to suffer evil without the power of retaliation. therefore justice is tolerated as the lesser evil and not regarded as a good proceeding to his second argument glaucon maintains that given the power to behave however they wish the just and unjust man will follow the same path of behavior which is the path most advantageous to their own interest and happiness he also asserts that men are only diverted to the path of justice by the force of laws he reinforces this argument with the story of gyges gyges is a shepherd One day, there is a storm, and an earthquake opens a hole in his field where his sheep graze. After the storm passes, Gyges descends into the opening and discovers a hollow, brazen horse with a door. He opens the door and sees a dead creature.
The creature is something more than human and wears a ring on its finger. Gyges takes the ring and ascends out of the hole. He wears the ring to the weekly shepherds'meeting and learns that the ring renders him invisible.
With this newfound power, Gyges goes to the king's court, he seduces the queen, kills the king, and seizes the kingdom. Glaucon asserts that if any man possessed the power of Gyges, he would behave in a similar unjust manner. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could take whatever he desired from the marketplace, lie with any woman, kill any man, and in all respects be like a god among men. If a man with this power did refrain from injustice, people would regard him as a most wretched fool.
though publicly they would praise him because of their fear of suffering evil. A man who censures injustice is one whom, owing to cowardice or age or weakness, does not possess the power to do injustice. For when a man does possess the power to be unjust with impunity, he immediately becomes unjust. Glaucon's third contention is that the unjust life is better than the just life.
Parents teach their children to be just for the sake of the rewards of being considered just by other people. Thus, they are advising their children to maintain an appearance of justice. Appearance tyrannizes truth and is lord of happiness.
For a just man can be considered unjust and accordingly punished, while an unjust man can be considered just and accordingly rewarded. Thus, Glaucon concludes that it is better to be unjust and appear just because a man gains both the rewards of justice and injustice. Furthermore, a man does not need to worry over concealing his injustice from the gods, for if there are gods who care about human interactions, tradition claims that those gods can be appeased by sacrifices and libations, and the wealthy unjust man will be better able to offer sacrifices to the gods to atone for his transgressions than the poor just man.
Glaucon requests of Socrates to prove that the just life is better than the unjust life, without considering the rewards of either. because Glaucon has sufficiently proven that the unjust can gain the rewards of the just through appearances. Socrates is unsure of whether he is capable of refuting such a strong argument, but he resolves to do his best.
He first states that justice is to be found in the individual as well as the state, and because the state is larger than the individual, they will more easily discern justice in the state. Therefore, they will first search for justice in the state and then proceed to the individual.