A short conversation with Socrates, based on an ancient Greek play called The Republic (Book I). (Socrates is speaking first to a very old and rich man, Cephalus, and then to Polemarchus, the son of Cephalus.)
Socrates: Dear friend, Cephalus! What do you consider to be the greatest blessing that you have from all of your money?
Cephalus: Well, Socrates, when a man is old, he thinks about the life he has lived and what he has done to other people. It becomes important not to leave any debts unpaid, not to have lied to anyone, to have treated everyone justly – to have lived the life of justice.
Socrates: But what is justice? Does it mean that you always speak the truth and pay your debts? Or is justice something more than that? Are there any exceptions to justice? For example, suppose that a friend lends me his car. A few days later, this friend becomes very upset, very angry about something, and asks me to return his car to him because he needs to drive somewhere. Now, I know that it is very dangerous to drive when one is upset or angry. But the car belongs to him, so according to your definition of justice, I should give it back to him. But what if I know that if I give it back he’ll go for a drive and get into an accident? Should I still give the car back to him?
Cephalus: Good point, you are quite right – you shouldn’t give it back to him.
Socrates: So then, speaking the truth and paying your debts is not the correct definition of justice.
Polemarchus: No, wait, Socrates – that is the correct definition of justice.
Socrates: Polemarchus, what is the definition of justice you want to defend?
Polemarchus: That giving back to each what belongs to him is just. My father was right.
Socrates: I don’t quite understand. So I should return a car to its owner when he asks for it, no matter what?
Polemarchus: Yes!
Socrates: But you agree that it’s dangerous for a person to drive when he is angry, and so I should not give my friend back his car if he wants to drive while he is angry?
Polemarchus: Certainly not!
Socrates: So when your father, Cephalus, said that giving back to a friend what belongs to him is just, he didn’t think of this exception to his rule?
Polemarchus: Of course not; my father thinks that a friend should always do good to another friend. And letting your friend drive while he is angry would be bad.
Socrates: So it seems we have a different idea now of what justice is. At first, we thought that justice is giving to each what belongs to him. But now we see that justice is doing good to friends. What we owe to our friends is to do what is good for them. Even if that means that sometimes, in order to do good toward our friends, we do not give them what belongs to them.
Polemarchus: Yes.
Socrates: What do we owe to our enemies, then? Does justice mean that we also give our enemies what we owe them? Is it just to do harm to our enemies – since it is just to do good to our friends?
Polemarchus: That seems right, I think.
Socrates: But it does not seem just to ever do harm to anyone, friend or enemy. So, we still have not found a good definition of justice. It’s much more complicated than it seemed at the beginning.