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Socrates and Distributive Justice

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Interpreting Plato Socratically
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Abstract

This chapter explicates many of the words of Plato’s Socrates on the problem of distributive justice. One of the main points of this chapter is to demonstrate how the Socratic Anti-Mouthpiece Interpretation can and ought to function when it interprets the words placed in Socrates’ mouth by Plato. One of the leading contemporary philosophers of Plato, Richard Kraut , argues that Plato has a theory of distributive justice. However, while this chapter will argue that there is no theory of distributive justice found in the words of Plato’s Socrates, there are philosophically interesting concepts and arguments which are articulated and may be useful to contemporary moral, legal, social and political philosophers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For discussions of the nuances of proportionate punishment , see Corlett (2014: Chapter 5); Davis (1992); Ryberg (2004).

  2. 2.

    Furthermore, Irwin ’s unfounded remarks run afoul of Joel Feinberg ’s arguments against their being even a mere prima facie moral obligation to obey the law. (Feinberg 1992: Chapter 6).

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Corlett, J.A. (2018). Socrates and Distributive Justice. In: Interpreting Plato Socratically. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77320-9_5

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