Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy

92
Anthony A. Long
Heraclitus on Plato, but the congruity of two great minds operating in
more or less the same cultural milieu. 10
According to B 112 Heraclitus identified the “greatest excellence”
(aretÞ) and wisdom with sôphrosynÞ. 11 Keeping that statement in mind,
let us turn to Plato Gorgias 507e6 –508a8. The context is Socrates’ refutation
of Callicles’ undiscriminating hedonism. Here is a summary of
his immediately preceding argument (503d-507c):
1. Every craftsman imposes organization (taxis) and order (kosmos) on
the materials with which he works.
2. As with artefacts, so too with bodies and souls.
3. The name for organization and order in the soul is nomos, which
condition is equivalent to justice and sôphrosynÞ.
4. In fact the excellence of anything is a function of taxis and kosmos.
5. Therefore it is the sôphrôn soul that is excellent.
Having proved that psychic excellence consists in order and sôphrosynÞ,
Socrates continues:
The wise say, Callicles, that heaven and earth and gods and humans, are
bound together by community and friendship and order and moderation
and justice. That is why they call this universe order, and not disorder
and immoderation … I think you are not applying your mind to these
things, but are failing to see that geometrical equality [or “proportion”]
has great power among both gods and humans. You think you should practise
getting more (pleonexia) because you neglect geometry.
vas· dû oR sovo¸, § Jakk¸jkeir, ja· oqqam¹m ja·c/mja·heo»r ja·!mhq¾pour
tµm joimym¸am sum´weim ja· vik¸am ja· josliºtgta ja· syvqos¼mgm ja·
dijaiºtgta, ja· t¹ fkom toOto di± taOta jºslom jakoOsim … oqj !josl¸am
oqd³ !jokas¸am. s» d´ loi doje?r oqpqos´weim t¹m moOmto¼toir … !kk±
k´kgh´m sefti BQsºtgr B ceyletqijµ ja· 1mheo?r ja·1m!mhq¾poir l´ca
d¼matai, s» d³ pkeomen¸am oUei de?m !sje?m· ceyletq¸ar c±q !leke?r.
In this remarkable passage Plato invokes cosmic order as a universal
binding force, glossing that force as community, friendship, order, sôphrosynÞ,
and justice, and finally, as geometrical equality or proportion.
He also exploits a pun, in the manner of Heraclitus, on kosmos
and kosmios. Echoes of Heraclitus are unmistakable, not only in the
shared terminology, including the shared reproach concerning lack
10 See Wardy 2002, who argues that Plato makes consistently positive use of Heraclitean
perspectives in the Symposium.
11 Cited by Stobaeus 3.1.178. Doubts about the authenticity of this fragment are
well answered by Kahn 1979, 120.