The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a

74 The Timocratic Soul
See 548d-550c. Just as the philosopher-led aristocratic city has its parallel in the
reason-led aristocratic soul, the soldier-led timocratic city has its parallel in the
timocratic soul, which is ruled by the spirited part. Being “a lover of ruling and of
honor,” such a person is fiercely competitive and concerned above all with matters
of reputation. He is “gentle to free people and very submissive to rulers.” But he
tends to be “harsh to his slaves.” They do not share his noble ideals, and so they
need stern guidance. He loves music and poetry, but loves physical training and
hunting more. As for money, he despises it in his youth, but comes to “love it
more and more” as he grows older; for the rational part, being only a servant in his
soul, doesn’t insist, as it would if his soul were aristocratic, that temperance is
every bit as important in private life as it is in public life. Socrates ends his
account of timocracy in the soul describing how a young man, pulled between the
philosophical ideals of his father and the immoderate nagging of his mother and
others, can end up surrendering the rulership of his soul to the spirited part. The
classic literary study of timocratic souls is Homer’s Iliad. (Consider the opening
scene between Achilles and Agamemnon, Hector’s farewell to Andromache, etc.).
Have you ever known someone ruled by what Socrates calls the spirited part
of the soul, someone who cared more about honor and praise than about
either immediate gratification or philosophical pursuits? This would be a
person who puts a very high value on reputation and the marks of reputation
(high grades, prizes, medals, awards, honorary titles, and the like) and on
the sort of competition that earns these things. Such a person would be
quick to take offense at insults, but slow to give in to licentiousness in its
various forms.
What is there to admire in a timocratic soul? What is there to regret?
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