Just Speech And The Unjust Speech Analysis

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During Aristophanes’ The Clouds, the exchange between the Just Speech and the Unjust Speech, and the backdrop of comparisons over old and new, present their sides to decide which of the two arguments shall be the educator of Pheidippides, son of Strepsiades. Throughout the play, you see a contrast of old and new. The old- Stepsiades, and the new- Phidippides, but these comparisons of old and new are not just between the characters. Additionally, these comparisons can be seen in the context of the Just Speech and the Unjust Speech. The old, or the Just Speech, based on morality, honor fitness, and strength- and the “new”, the Unjust Speech which is based on knowledge, progress, questioning, excess, exchanging ideas and rhetoric. The first …show more content…
In this context, what is just is perception, and what is unjust is reality. If someone prides themselves on being a “pederast and shamless” (Aristophanies 1984 p.152), then if they are insulted with such words then they are not being insulted at all, in fact, they are being complemented. If there is no context behind the word, if the word shameless is just a word and has no meaning at all, then it is not an insult. The Unjust speech represents reality because words are really just words and have not meaning or bearing to them at all, it is what we attach to them and the context they are being used in that determine the nature of the word itself. If we perceive things to be good and bad, then justice can indeed exist, but in reality there is no perception. In reality, words are not even words; they are expressions of wind that exist from the mouth. It is the perception and beliefs that we attach to these words, what we perceive to be “good” and what we perceive to be “bad” that determine if the words are indeed good or bad. We perceive pain to be a bad thing, but does that make a masochist a bad person? Is the term “no pain no gain” then a derogatory one? It is the context that we apply the words in that determine if they are good and bad. If words have no attached meaning and are merely just winds coming out of the mouth, then justice cannot exist because it’s the application of the words and context that define what justice
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