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

76 The Oligarchic Soul
See 553a-555b. Socrates imagines the oligarchic man coming to be when his
timocratic father, a lover of honor, is falsely accused, tried, convicted, and stripped
of his property. The son, feeling the bite of poverty and suffering a general
disillusionment with the pursuit of honor, gives himself over to money-making.
Seeking material security, the appetitive part takes command of the soul and
subordinates the other parts. The spirited part has its competitive energies turned
to the arena of the marketplace, and the rational part is reduced to contemplating
the equivalent of Franklin’s maxims, the Wall Street Journal, and Fortune
magazine. Socrates explains that it is really only a portion of the appetitive part
that rules in the oligarchic person, the “necessary appetites.” By this he means
those desires we are compelled by nature to satisfy that are beneficial to our health
and “useful where work is concerned.” (See 558d-559d.) Our desire for
nourishing food is an example. As oligarchic people see it, health is a good
investment, and so they eat well, exercise regularly, and don’t smoke. If they are
like Cephalus and believe the gods can help arrange a desirable afterlife, then they
take part in the appropriate liturgies. One thing Socrates is willing to say for
oligarchic people is that they are generally trustworthy, this being good for
business. Justice, of a certain conventional sort, pays. But when injustice can be
done with impunity – when, say, an opportunity for undetectable tax evasion
happens to present itself – then oligarchic people cannot be counted on (to do the
right thing). Also, as Socrates wryly observes, although they are basically thrifty
and conservative, most of them give in to their “dronish,” unnecessary appetites
“when they have other people’s money to spend.”
Can a person with an oligarchic soul be happy (possess eudaimonia)? As
the Republic draws to a close, one should recall the challenge Socrates is
trying to meet. He is to prove that justice is desirable for its own sake, so
desirable, in fact, that it is more desirable to be a just man, falsely accused
and facing the prospect of being tortured to death, than an unjust man,
believed to be just and therefore honored. How bad is the oligarchic life?