Justice played a very important role in Plato’s philosophy. After criticizing different theories of justice he came up with his own. He said that justice is a “human virtue” which makes a person good. Individually justice can make a person good and self-consistent. And socially it can bring a harmony to a society. So Plato’s idea of justice is all about virtue and goodness.
Plato also believed that justice was an essential part of an ideal society. Because it could bring more light and cure bad things. Plato believed that the state had to be ruled by philosophers. Only they could judge what justice is, as they were wisdom. Such people in charge were capable of making accurate judgments. They had an idea of important issues in human life. According to Plato justice is understood only for enlightened people.
But before Plato found his ideal term of justice, he questioned other people. The answers were all different and he summed them up. Most of the views were even rejected for some reasons. Plato’s concept of justice came from the theories of rejected people.
The opinions of different great people were criticized by Plato. The point of Polemarchus’ justice is a perfect example. According to him “justice is doing good to friends and harm to enemies”. Plato doubted and had his own view on that statement. He said that doing evil to anybody wasn’t right in terms of morality. This conception of justice is about the society not an