“The Convention of Justice”Around 400 BC, a famous Greek philosopher named Plato constructed two characters in the books “Gorgias” and “The Republic”, which chastised the virtue of justice, and this reinforced conventional morality as a self-fulfilling vice. Callicles and Thrasymachus are characters that Plato included in his works to represent the common convention of justice in the realm of philosophical thinkers. Being a student of Socrates, Plato uses him as a character who questions their opinions and challenges them to think outside the box of their beliefs. Plato conveys justice as a virtue of the human soul, and he does so by comparing and contrasting these thoughts through intelligent "cat and mouse" dialogues with these three characters. Callicles is represented in the book "Gorgias". The debate in this dialogue is the question of nature versus law. “The truth of this can be seen in a variety of examples, drawn both from the animal world and from the complex cities and nations of human beings; law is judged as the superior ruling over the inferior and having the upper hand (p.68, 483d).” The argument is that justice is a natural animalistic nature of being; that the strong will always dominate the weak. The stronger man deserves a greater share and greater pleasures. The life of being unjust is more beneficial than that of being just. Superiority is built on strength, intelligence and courage. Only those who possess it should have the power or control to govern. Power is controlled by our appetite. Callicles' provision is not refuted by Socrates, but he explains that his arguments are not complete. “You, I think, for all your intelligence, have not paid attention… to the middle of the paper… justice in a society, can be easily observed today. We have leaders who take a stand, who don't know everything to control that power, but have excellent publicists and speech makers. Their appearance of knowledge is created by the creator of the discourse, not by their intellect on the subject. Does this mean that we live in an unjust Socratic society? No, fortunately, America has a system of checks and balances, and there is a rule of movement between mandates. This does not mean that we are a truly just society in Socrates' eyes. He would criticize us just as he had done with his democratic society in Athens. Works Cited: Goldstein, Yael, Jesse Hawkes, and Lawrence Gaccon. Gladney. The Republic: Plato. New York: Spark Pub., 2002. Print.-Platón, James A. Arieti, and Roger Milton. Barrus. Gorgias. Newburyport: Fire/R. Pullins, 2007. Print.