Book I

Socrates is detained at a festival and discusses old age, wealth, and justice with the elderly Cephalus.

Socrates challenges Polemarchus's definition of justice, taken from Simonides, as doing good to friends and harm to enemies.

The simple, aphoristic definitions of justice are shown to be inadequate, giving way to philosophical precision and early casuistry.

Thrasymachus aggressively interrupts, defining justice as the interest of the stronger, or what the ruler enacts as law.

Socrates argues a ruler's art serves the subjects, but Thrasymachus counters that rulers exploit subjects for personal profit.

Socrates introduces the "art of pay" to explain why rulers require reward or fear punishment to govern.

Socrates argues that the just man, like a skilled artist, seeks advantage only over the unskilled, not his peers.

Socrates argues that injustice is a source of weakness and that justice, as the soul's excellence, leads to happiness.

The argument's reliance on the analogy between arts and virtues is examined, noting its flaws and historical context.

The Hellenic sentiment of the good as finite is explored through ideas of measure, harmony, and the negative nature of evil.