The Republic
2. As Socrates and his interlocutors consider the different regimes in Books VII-IX of The Republic, what is the standard of judgment they use for all of them?
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It's difficult to put one's finger on just "one" standard of judgment that Socrates uses to evaluate different regimes, but the most obvious would probably be the notion of justice--a justice, of course, that is ideal and formal--revealed only in contemplation and philosphicla dialogue.
Republic