Abstract
Plato scrutinized the concept of justice, which he perceived as an individual and social virtue, in a variety of his works, particularly in the Republic and the Laws, and tried to reveal what it is and its importance. The issue of justice is a difficult matter, and there are disagreements over what it is. Therefore, when Plato searched for an answer to the question of what it was, he also revealed what it was not. First of all, he opposed the views that justice is a manifestation of the will of the strong or is merely a means of protecting self-interest. Justice is neither a manifestation of the will of the strong nor is it just means of protecting self-interest. Justice is a principle that surpasses even the gods. According to Plato, justice is an idea, similar to the idea of good.
For Plato, justice is not only an idea but also a virtue, and as a virtue, it is not detached from other virtues. Its existence associated with the existence of other virtues. In addition to justice, Plato deemed moderation, courage and wisdom as virtues and associated these virtues to the tripartite structure of the soul. According to Plato, who had adopted the tripartite understanding of the soul, apart from the rational part of the soul, there are parts of the soul that are irrational, which only desire and enrage. While the virtue of the rational part of the soul is wisdom, the virtues of other parts are moderation and courage. Justice is a virtue that emerges spontaneously when one has these three virtues. For this reason, there is no special part that corresponds to it in the soul.
According to Plato, societies, similar to the human spirit, consist of three parts, and each part corresponds to a part in the human soul. The producers correspond to the desiring part of the human soul, the guardian group corresponds to the enraging part of the soul, and the ruling class corresponds to the rational part of the soul. The virtues that these classes that make up the society must exhibit are the values that correspond to the parts of the soul. This means that the productive class must have the virtue of moderation, the auxiliary class must have the virtue of courage, and the guardian class must have the virtue of wisdom. If all classes fulfill their social roles with the virtue that is necessary for them, the society will become orderly, fair and happy. In order for society to have these qualities, the wise people who represent wisdom must rule. Because only these people can protect the goodness of society as a whole. Plato only considered societies that are ruled by rulers with wisdom as just societies and he evaluates the forms of government according to the virtues possessed by their rulers. Societies that move away from the ideal state will gradually lose other virtues and distance themselves from justice.
For Plato, one of the most important duties of a ruler, who provides justice to his society, is legislation. Via laws, the officials involved in the administration of the state and the duties assigned to these administrators are determined, thereby establishing the operational mechanism of the state. Apart from that, laws act as tools to ensure that society is virtuous. The purpose of the law is the virtue, goodness and happiness of the society. Laws that are based on reason help citizens to garner virtue. People who obey the law will be able to establish friendly relations with each other.
In this study, it was attempted to demonstrate how Plato perceived justice, order and law, and how he relates these concepts to one other and other related concepts such as virtue, wisdom, happiness and punishment. Although there are many studies on Plato's views on justice, virtue and politics, there is no direct study in the Turkish literature on how he relates justice to concepts such as order, law and punishment. This study claims to fill a gap in the literature in this respect. In the study, what justice is not and its importance for Plato was mentioned first, and afterward, justice was discussed as an order in the aspects of individual soul and society, and finally, answers were sought for the questions of how to achieve individual and social justice. According to Plato, it has been concluded that individual and social happiness cannot be attained without the virtue of justice, wisdom is a necessity for justice, and laws are a means of achieving justice.