ned to them. It is possible that a child of gold or silver blood will be born to those of copper or bronze blood. In that case, the child will be recognized and raised by the designated class. The same is true vice versa. Because of this noble lie, Socrates will be able to control and keep the designated classes in their places.The question to be asked is, does this lie follow Socrates' belief of what justice is? To look at this we must first discover what is Socrates' definition of justice? After setting up his ideal state, there are three distinct classes of people. Each of these people is best suited for doing his or her job in their area of skill. One cannot perform this task to the fullest however, if it is not the only task that he or she does. For example, a steak knife is best suited to cutting steaks. If it were designed to also spread butter, it would not be as good a steak knife for cutting steak. It is for this reason that each class must do only what it is best suited for them. After this is stated Socrates and Glaucon go on to decide how the rulers should be raised and how the guardians should grow up. All of this is not necessary for the argument at hand, what is justice? "Because what we are looking for seems to have been rolling around at our feet from the very beginning, and we didn't see it, which was ridiculous of us (432d)." Socrates states that civic justice consists of every class performing the task that they are best suited for.Up until this point, Glaucon and Socrates have only discovered what justice is in the state. But what is it in the soul? In order to achieve this goal, Socrates feels that it is necessary to identify three properties of the society and then compare them to the human soul. These three parts, appetite, spirit, and rational correspond to the three social classes, producers, guardians, and rulers respectively. They then argue that the human soul is indeed made up of the sam...
