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

80 Lawless Desires
See 571a-d. Having distinguished the unnecessary desires of the soul’s appetitive
part from the necessary ones, Socrates now identifies certain of the unnecessary
desires as deserving special attention. He calls these desires “lawless.” They
typically lay submerged, deep in the soul, held in check by the other parts. But in
bed, at night, especially after one has glutted oneself on food and drink, and the
rational part of one’s soul has gone unconscious, they awaken, and “freed from all
shame and wisdom,” they seek to gratify themselves upon the stage of one’s
dreams. Incest, bestiality, murder, cannibalism – nothing is too horrible or
disgusting. These strangest of desires are essentially transgressive. They involve
the exercise of power in violation of values that make peaceful, constructive,
orderly living possible. To act upon them is, in other words, to alienate oneself
from cooperation with other people, and from the civilizing effect of communal
life. They are not merely non-rational, but counter-rational, and therefore
potentially very dangerous.
What is the desire that motivates a rapist? How is it different from other
desires involving sexuality?
Does the presence of lawless desires indicate that a person wants to break
free of peaceful, constructive, orderly living? If so, to what end? Is
transgression itself gratifying?
How is it possible for a counter-rational desire to be controlled at all? (In
thinking about this, recall the example at 439e-440a of Leontius and the
corpses.)
Socrates suggests that lawless desires can be eliminated from the soul. Can
they?
Back