Justice and Moderation

After reading 430d - 435a, my head hurt quite a bit. I was considering what the difference is between justice and moderation. They are both described similarly -- as "the minding of one' s own business and not being a busybody" (433b). But, as i saw in the beginning of this passage, moderation is described first in a man. It is described just as we usually think of moderation -- "[it is a] certain kind of order and mastery of certain kinds of pleasures and desires, as men say when they use....the phrase 'stronger than himself...' (430e). And as they, and i, found that to be true, they moved on to look at moderation in the city to see if it was the same as it was in the man. They noticed that in the man, moderation must be used to fight desires and pleasures in many different areas of life, which they also noticed in the city. To be moderate in the city, they saw that just like in the man, there was a part of a man that "is better by nature [which must be] master over that which is worse" (431a) in order to be 'stronger than himself.' For a city, a city must be moderate and overcome the desires and pleasures that it is tempted to pursue.

Justice on the other hand is seen as "the minding of one's own business and not being a busybody" (433b) -- obviously different from moderation. It is different because being moderate is about resisting temptations and allowing the good to overpower the bad, whereas justice is to do what you are good at and let others do what they're good at. Yes, in a way, this is resisting a temptation to try other occupations, but that is a stretch to say that moderation and justice are similar. But, i WOULD say that, in a way, in order to have justice you have to have moderation because of the ability to be "stronger than yourself."

This is a difficult topic, but i believe that has a bit of clarity. If you're curious and disagree or want to see where i got this, refer to lines 430d - 435a.