Maul and Thrasymachus on Justice
Plato's Republic begins as a discussion of the true nature of justice. Socrates suggests that a just ruler seeks the good of his subjects, but one of his interlocutors, a young man named Thrasymachus, disagrees. According to Thrasymachus, justice is merely "[T]he advantage of the stronger and the ruler, and harmful to the one who obeys and serves... Those who reproach injustice do so because they are afraid not of doing it but of suffering it. So, Socrates, injustice, if it is on a large enough scale, is stronger, freer, and more masterly than justice." In other words, the ruler makes laws for his own benefit, not for the benefit of his subjects – and if he is successful in his injustice, he will be stronger, freer, and more masterful than a just person could ever hope to be.
Thrasymachus enters the discussion "like a wild beast about to spring"; as Socrates tells it, "he hurled himself at us as if to tear us to pieces... Polemarchus and I were frightened and flustered as he roared into our midst". The description of Thrasymachus as a beastlike character reflects his beastly philosophy: he thinks men should live like animals, who are ruled by their amoral, instinctive desire for power, not by any ideas of justice.
In "The Phantom Apprentice" (The Clone Wars 7.10), Maul – who resembles Thrasymachus as a beastlike character, a snarling monster ruled by his passions – echoes Thrasymachus' words when he tells Ahsoka Tano, "Justice is merely the construct of the current power base: a base which, according to my calculations, is about to change... [The Republic] already has [fallen] and you just can't see it. There is no justice, no law, no order, except for the one that will replace it." Like Thrasymachus, Maul denies that there is any real justice, which means that the Empire is no more or less just than the Republic.
Like Thrasymachus, Maul thinks the powerful can use their power however they wish, without regard to considerations of justice or injustice or the good of the weak. However, this philosophy does not make Maul more free, happy, or masterful, as Thrasymachus thought it would. Instead, it leaves Maul forever afraid of those who have more power than he does, scraping together whatever meager power he can get in the underbelly of a galaxy unjustly tyrannized by Darth Sidious.
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Characters: Darth Maul
Shows: The Clone Wars
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Concepts: justice / power and weakness
Influences: Plato
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