But why do you ask?īecause I want to know in which of the three classes you would place justice? Is there not also a second class of goods, such as knowledge, sight, health, which are desirable not only in themselves, but also for their results?Īnd would you not recognize a third class, such as gymnastic, and the care of the sick, and the physician’s art also the various ways of money-making–these do us good but we regard them as disagreeable and no one would choose them for their own sakes, but only for the sake of some reward or result which flows from them? I agree in thinking that there is such a class, I replied.
Let me ask you now:–How would you arrange goods–are there not some which we welcome for their own sakes, and independently of their consequences, as, for example, harmless pleasures and enjoyments, which delight us at the time, although nothing follows from them?
I should wish really to persuade you, I replied, if I could. So he said to me: Socrates, do you wish really to persuade us, or only to seem to have persuaded us, that to be just is always better than to be unjust? For Glaucon, who is always the most pugnacious of men, was dissatisfied at Thrasymachus’ retirement he wanted to have the battle out. WITH these words I was thinking that I had made an end of the discussion but the end, in truth, proved to be only a beginning.
Plato Republic Book II SOCRATES – GLAUCON
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