What Socrates Understood about Justice, Truth, and Power

The claim that justice is "nothing but the interest of the stronger" is a cynical one, but one Thrasymachus repeats again and again in his long discourse with Socrates. One senses early on that Socrates does not agree with this view of justice, and through a series of questions he traps a "blushing" Thrasymachus into conceding that justice was not an arbitrary precept established by the state but an eternal idea that embodies "virtue and wisdom."

The conversation is surprisingly relevant today.