Who did Plato regard as a “just man”? “I declare that justice is nothing else than that which advantageous to the stronger. It follows that the just man is he who obeys the laws of the governing group; the unjust man disregards them. But, the subject who obeys hurts himself and promotes the good of others. It pays, therefore, to act unjustly.”

There’s a part of Plato’s Republic (c. 380 BC) which is fascinating because it resembles a prophecy about Jesus. It appears in this dialog by Socrates about the just man, especially in the italicized portion:

And at [the unjust man’s] side let us place the just man in his nobleness and simplicity, wishing, as Aeschylus says, to be and not to seem good. There must be no seeming, for if he seem to be just he will be honoured and rewarded, and then we shall not know whether he is just for the sake of justice or for the sake of honours and rewards; therefore, let him be clothed in justice only, and have no other covering; and he must be imagined in a state of life the opposite of the former. Let him be the best of men, and let him be thought the worst; then he will have been put to the proof; and we shall see whether he will be affected by the fear of infamy and its consequences. And let him continue thus to the hour of death; being just and seeming to be unjust. When both have reached the uttermost extreme, the one of justice and the other of injustice, let judgment be given which of them is the happier of the two.

yes

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