Just Running

"And this is the way with the just; he who endures to the end of every action and occasion of his entire life has a good report and carries off the prize which men have to bestow," is one of the lines of Book X that most caught my eye, because in it, I see the clearest definition of justice that Plato offers.

It would seem to me that the analogy of the runner carries with it many different aspects of justice. First, one cannot owe another. These debts would slow him down or make him answerable and in some aspect controlled by another. So at least this most primitive definition of justice is encompassed, but there is much more here. Plato points to a timelessness of justice: that it's not so much that one can act just and unjust, but rather that one is to be consistently just to the finish line. But using "just" in a definition of justice does not do much good. 

Another way this analogy helps to define justice is focussing on keeping good report with every action. This brings to the forefront a duty aspect of justice. If one is to be just, one must do his duty. Where this becomes interesting is in what one's duty is. Duty changes from station to station and between professions, but even greater so does duty vary between cultures. A Lakedaimonion's duty is not the same as an Athenian's, but in some way they are both tied together. The fulfilment of one's duty to whichever one is bound seems to participate in the form of justice. So long as one endures to the end of every action--be that action Spartan or Athenian--one will carry off the prize; one will be just.

What is interesting about this is the way in which Justice is both a constant and malleable. As a Form, it is eternal, but it seems as though the way in which one participates in that Form is effected by one's circumstance. While I haven't quite figured out what this means, or where it is going, I do think it is of interest to note and discuss.