What is justice?

Got through a couple more sections of Republic today. I have to say, Socrates and Thrasymachus certainly debate for a long time about what justice is. Definitely need to listen to it a second time to get the full benefit. One particular conclusion stood out. Socrates expounds that a person is not acting in his capacity if he errs. For example, a mathematican is not a mathematician when he errs, because he errs through want of skill, and a mathematician cannot be such without that skill. The logic is a bit circular, and frankly I'm surprised at this conclusion. Doesn't seem to fit with Plato's universal ideals. I wonder if I could get out of speeding tickets that way. "But officer, when I erred, I wasn't a driver, because I lacked that attention to the speed limit that a driver must have".

Hobbes was talking about miracles today. He was rigorous in his definition of miracles, their application, and their significance. I rather like that. It's to be expected of a philosopher who so admired specific language that he thought philosophy could be done much like geometry, through reducible theorems.

I bought Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche today. That looks promising. It came down to either that or Sartre. I think I made the right choice.

I would like to start learning German soon with my housemates... I was thinking I might learn Latin alongside it. I don't know if I could sustain learning both languages, though. Something to consider, of course.

Finally, I've been thinking lately along epistemological lines. What sort of knowledge is most beneficial to a person. As Socrates says in the Republic, the end of that is that which it singularly can fulfill or can fulfill better than anything else. The eye, for example, has the end of seeing, because nothing else can fulfill that need. Well, I suppose that could be applied to human knowledge. What knowledge best fulfills my 'need', will be my 'end'. It seems simple, but I think it's a rather elegant connection between cause and end-state. Now, if only I knew my 'needs'...