ABSTRACT
Socrates asks his question, in Plato's Republic, in the course of a discussion with Thrasymachus, a fictional figure, it appears, created to embody some of the rougher assumptions of contemporary sophists. Thrasymachus concedes that one often does have a reason for being concerned with others’ interests as well as one's own, but holds that this is only because one's power is limited— typically, by the greater power of others. Naturally, according to Thrasymachus, human beings pursue power and pleasure. They may, rationally, have to curtail that pursuit because of other people's power. They may also, irrationally, come to think that it is right or noble to respect others’ interests; but in that case they are being misled by conventions, social rules that inculcate these respectable but baseless assumptions. When they come to think like this, it is usually because, once more, someone else has greater power; their error is a deceit, and the conventions that deceive them are an instrument of coercion.
