Justice in Plato's Republic

In Book 4 of Plato''s Republic Socrates introduces what is regarded by scholars as the Platonic account of justice according to which it is essentially internal and self-regarding a matter of relations among the parts of a city or soul. In this book Roslyn Weiss contends that there is another notion of justice as other-regarding and external which is to be found in a series of conversations in Book 1 between Socrates and three successive interlocutors. Weiss considers the relationship between justice as conceived in Book 1 and Book 4 and carefully examines what can be learned from each of the arguments. Her close analysis of Book 1 brings to light what Socrates really believed about justice and extracts and explores this Book''s many insights concerning justiceat both the political and the personal level.