War in Relation to Justice, Injustice, and the Just City Beginning in Book I Socrates states clearly that injustice causes war and justice causes the opposite, but by Book V he seems to have a completely different perspective on whether war is just or not. His mind apparently begins to change in Book II when he introduces the second class of people, namely the guardians, with the purpose of defending the city. Throughout Books II, IV and V Socrates discusses the topic of war in light of justice and finally concludes that war is the outworking of the perfectly just city. In Book I, Socrates states that “Injustice... causes civil war, hatred, and fighting among themselves, while justice brings friendship and a sense of common purpose.” So, according to Socrates in this first book, injustice leads to war. In relation to war Socrates later says that “injustice has the power, first, to make whatever it arises in... incapable of achieving anything as a unit, because of the civil wars and differences it creates, and, second, it makes that unit any enemy to itself and to what is in every way its opposite, namely, justice” (351e-352a). An objection to this argument may be this: If injustice arises in a city, is the city incapable of achieving a civil war as a unit? The differences in the city may be the cause of the war rather than the war the cause of the differences. There are bound to be differences in a city, and those differences could be large enough to cause two opposing groups to emerge, causing a civil war. These differences could have nothing to do with injustice. I do not see how Socrates has any basis for his claim that injustice causes civil war.Later in Republic, Socrates seems to stay consistent with his idea that injustice causes war. In Book II, he talks about how their city will run out of room for pastures and plough land, so they will have to seize some of their neighbors’ land. In 373e Socrate...
