To begin perhaps one of Plato's most influential dialogues, it commences with Socrates and friends gathering at a buddy's house in celebration of a festival. The BIG question comes up almost immediately: What is Justice?
The first response: "Giving to each what one is due."
Socrates says "What about if you borrowed a dude's sword and he, in a crazed and murderous rampage, asks for his sword back?"
The second response: "Well then justice is giving to someone what is appropriate."
Socrates: "That's a circular argument dude. You're saying that you need justice already in place to define justice."
The third response: "Justice is whatever benefits the stronger and helps them become stronger."
Socrates: "Don't be such a Chad. Rulers serve the ruled; if all they do is seek to aggrandize themselves, then they rule nothing but themselves while making everyone else miserable; the ruler should not profit from the ruled."
The question is then left unanswered as Socrates and company seek to understand what an ideal city-state would look like that would benefit all who live there. He introduces a rigid caste system where a Philosopher King, who best understands the Forms (i.e. the cosmic architecture that organizes and defines the parameters of reality), rules the city. Those who cannot break free from the material world are left to run the city-state's economy under the jurisdiction of the Philosopher and for the benefit of the entire city-state.
In this city-state, the Philosopher King rules, not just by justice, but also by wisdom, fortitude, and temperance. Given this system, it should come as no surprise that Plato is very much against democracy, seeing it as the road that inevitably leads to tyranny.
Tune in to learn more!