In search of justice

"That is to say, justice is useful when money is useless?"

"That is the inference."

"And when you want to keep a pruning-hook safe, then justice is useful to the individual and to the state; but when you want to use it, then the art of the vine-dresser? [...] And when you want to keep a shield or a lyre, and not to use them, you would say that justice is useful; but when you want to use them, then the art of the soldier or of the musician? [...] And so of all other things -- justice is useful when they are useless, and useless when they are useful?"

"That is the inference."

"Then justice is not good for much."

- Socrates and Polemarchus, The Republic, Book I, by Plato. Translation by Benjamin Jowett

This quote comes from a part of The Republic where sistafriend Polemarchus presents a popular definition of justice: "that justice consists in the repayment of debts, and that good is the debt which a man owes to his friend, and evil the debt which he owes to his enemies." Socrates ain't havin' none of that, no sir, and so he gets all socratic method on his ass.

Sistafriend Socrates tries to compare justice to things like medicine, horsemanship, and vine-dressing, but sistafriend, please! Them things is professions and crafts, and justice is a virtue. It's not a fair comparison.

Socrates also points out that your friends may not be the best people, and that helping them out may not be a just act. So doing a good thing for a bad person you don't know is bad is unjust.