Whose Justice?

Plato wrote four dialogues set around the trial and death of Socrates. Socrates was charged with heresy and corrupting the minds of the young and was eventually given the death sentence after the court found him guilty. Euthyphro, one of these dialogues, is set outside the court-house just before trial, where Socrates encounters Euthyphro- a self described expert on piety. Since the charges against Socrates fall in the category of impiety, Socrates engages him on the issue of piety.

The big question from Scrates is this: Is something pious or holy because it is approved of by the gods, or is something approved by the gods because it is pious (holy)? Euthyphro could not answer the question, so he argued that piety was a kind of justice, whereby we would seek to gratify the gods. But, as Socrates points out, does something gratify the gods because it is pious (holy), or is it pious (holy) because it gratifies the gods? Reason alone shows piety to be elusive. If Man, by his reason cannot determine what is truly pious, how can men judge Socrates for impiety?

In the other dialogues we learn more of Socrates ideas of the afterlife. After death a person is judged and receives a new life (life form) to learn from the mistakes or unjust deeds of their past. And yet, my question (not Socrates) is, how is one to learn true piety and justice? From Socrates own reasoning, we cannot and man is doomed to the eternal cycle, with no hope, no vindication, no Savior.

This is the similarity between atheistic and polytheistic religions/thought: there is no real justice, only a struggle in this life over whose justice is followed and no hope for any good or satisfying End.

To End All Wars and Plato's Republic

To follow up on this post, I wished to commend to you one of my favorite movies of all time: To End All Wars. From Wiki:

To End All Wars is a 2001 war film starring Robert Carlyle, Kiefer Sutherland and Sakae Kimura and directed by David L. Cunningham. The film is set in a Japanese prisoner of war labour camp where the inmates are building the Burma Railway during the last three and a half years of World War II. It was filmed primarily in Waimea Canyon, on the island of Kauai, Hawai'i, with some excerpt shots of Thailand. The film was awarded the Crystal Heart Award and Grand Prize for Dramatic Feature at the Heartland Film Festival.

The screenplay is based on the autobiography of Ernest Gordon and recounts the experiences of faith and hope of the ínterned men. The autobiography was originally published under the name Through the Valley of the Kwai, then later as Miracle on the River Kwai and finally re-issued with the title To End All Wars to tie in with the film.

What makes this such a powerful film for me is the outworking of "justice" through three groups of people. In the movie, the POW's form an underground school and begin discussing Plato's Republic. One group of POW's believe that justice entails doing good to one's friends and harm to one's enemy, a concept of justice spoken of in The Republic. The second group are the remaining POWs who believe Jesus Christ was the Just One and justice must entail following the teachings of Christ, including his command to love enemies. The third group are the Japanese soldiers, and most importantly, the soldier/warrior who was directly in charge of the prisoners. This third group follow the principles of Bushido which regulates the different classes of society- a view of justice very similar to Plato's.


So we see in the film Plato's Republican society at work. Within this camp some are trying to do harm to the guardians of the camp, and others seek to bless them. One group tries to topple the society through violence, the other overcomes the unjust society through love. It is a great movie.



Oh, by the way, it is a true story (in every sense of the phrase)!

Plato's Republic and the Just Man

One of the tremendous benefits of homeschooling our five kids is the opportunity to talk about things that really matter. Our oldest and I have been discussing JUSTICE over the past few weeks. What is justice? This is a question that has been asked for several millennium, and it is great to bring my son into the conversation.

I won't go into detail about Plato's view, but the discussion on whether it is best to be just or only to seem so is a great discussion. Although Socrates pokes holes in Glaucon's arguments, his concern seems universal and is a theme the prophets of Scripture bring up. According to Glaucon, the happy (blessed) man is the one that is not actually just, but only seems to be. Here is one of the gems in Plato's Republic:

...let him be clothed in justice only and have no other covering... Let him be the best of men, and let him be thought the worst; then he will have been put to the proof; and we shall see whether he will be affected by the fear of infamy and its consequences. And let him continue thus to the hour of death; being just and seeming to be unjust... [T]he just man who is thought unjust will be scourged, racked, bound... and at last, after suffering every kind of evil, he will be hung on a pole (impaled). Republic, Book 2, 361-362ish.

Sound familiar? Do you recall that the cross is foolishness to the Greek? Do you remember the testimony of the soldier at the foot of the cross?

"Truly, this was a just man."