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

McDonalds’ hamburger; the rational part, knowing best what pleases the
appetitive part, gets The Joy of Cooking down off the shelf. The spirited part may
think it wants to be widely admired; the rational part, knowing that the only praise
worth having is from a virtuous person, has the spirited part spur the soul on to be
worthy of such praise. Because the spirited and appetitive parts are generally
better satisfied in an aristocratic soul, and the rational part is uniquely well
satisfied, it follows that the just person lives the most fulfilling of lives, and is
therefore the happiest of human beings.
So has Socrates successfully met Glaucon’s challenge? Let’s revisit the
ideally just person, alone in his cell, facing death by torture in the morning.
His appetitive part doesn’t have much to look forward to that isn’t pretty
dreadful. His spirited part, always courageous, does its job and keeps the
appetitive part from whimpering. But how pleasant a job is this? How does
it compare, for instance, with the glory of toppling the tyrant currently
lording over the city (or even with the glory of becoming neighborhood
darts champion)? If Socrates is right, and the just person unjustly facing
death by torture is actually happier than the unjust person widely admired
for his apparent virtues, then the reason for this happiness has to come down
to those pleasures of the rational part of the soul to which the just person has
unique access. Ultimately, if Socrates has a case, it must rest on the special
joy possessed by the philosopher who has come to know the forms, and in
particular the form of the good. What would this be like, to know the form
of the good? The experience Socrates has in mind may be something akin to
what Buddhists call “enlightenment” or what Western theists call “the
presence of God,” for it is supposed to be an encounter between a human
being and that which is of greatest value in reality. Recall the passage from
486a-b: “And do you imagine that a thinker who is high-minded enough to
look at all time and all being will consider human life to be a very important
thing?” “He couldn’t possibly.” “Then he won’t consider death to be a
terrible thing either, will he?” “Not in the least.” The person who comes to
know the form of the good has, arguably, completed life’s quest. Would
this be happiness?