Up to the Task? In the beginning of the second book of The Republic of Plato, Glaucon and Adeimantus both issue challenges to Socrates regarding justice. The first challenge issued is Glaucon’s. Glaucon asks of Socrates that he prove that, “it is in every way better to be just than unjust” (35). Glaucon then takes up Thrasymachus’ argument and furthers it with a description of the perfectly just and the perfectly unjust man, and the …showed first 75 words of 641 total…

…showed last 75 words of 641 total…of a city. Therefore, Socrates fails to adequately meet the brothers’ challenge on two levels: The city that Socrates points to as having perfect justice does not, and, even if Socrates had realized such a city, it would not have accurately answered the brothers’ challenge because Socrates quickly changed the topic from the individual to the city, as Socrates clearly felt that he could not respond to the brother’s challenge on an individual level.