By Joseph R. Wood, The Catholic Thing - One of my favorite episodes in philosophy comes early in Plato’s dialogue, the Republic. The characters in the conversation are discussing what justice is, and why we should live a just life. Socrates, in the kind of display that eventually earned him execution by drinking hemlock, is poking holes in his friends’ understanding of justice... “Ok, if you’re so smart, Socrates, what do you think justice is?” And now the dialogue is off and running.