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

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Back Socrates likens the people who “feed, fatten, and fornicate” to a container that leaks. “Never tasting any stable or pure pleasure,” they are forced to satisfy their recurring desires again and again. Suppose one of these leaky vessels were to go to Socrates and say: “But don’t you see, I look forward to hunger and thirst and the surges of sexual desire. I treasure my curiosity and my wanderlust. Not only don’t I mind the recurrence of these appetites, but I would very much mind if I didn’t have them. If my vessel didn’t have holes, I would knock holes in it for the joy that holes bring!” (Callicles is more or less expressing this view in the Gorgias at 494a-b.) How might Socrates reply? What does it mean to call a pleasure “stable”? That it lasts for hours, days, years? Suppose someone were to object that there is no such thing as a longterm state of pleasure, that the experience inevitably comes to be taken for granted and ceases to be appreciated. How might Socrates reply? Socrates says that he will find out what he means if he asks the questions and Glaucon answers them. Does Socrates need other people in order to think?
86 How Much More Unpleasant is the Tyrannical Life? See 587b-588a. Immediately upon completion of the third proof, Socrates launches into a more or less ridiculous calculation of how many times more pleasant a just person’s life is than a tyrant’s. (There are many things problematic with the reasoning here. Just to note one thing, no evidence has been given in support of the claim that the amount by which the democratic soul is happier than the tyrannical soul is comparable to the amount by which the oligarchic soul is happier the democratic soul. Likewise for the other soul types. So to infer by “calculation” that one soul type lives more pleasantly than another soul type by a certain quantity of pleasure is unwarranted.) It is hard to know what to make of this passage. Unlike the similarly bizarre calculative passage at 545d-547a, we aren’t told in this case that the Muses are “playing and jesting with us.” Should we interpret this as humor, as the giddiness that comes after setting down a great dialectical burden? Could it be that Plato (the puppeteer behind the scenes) wants to remind us that Socrates, however much a lover of wisdom he may be, is only human? Could Socrates just be trying to shake us up a bit, challenging us to consider the possibility that the lives different people live are not just a little different with respect to happiness, but worlds apart? Back
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The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guid
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19 Luxuries in the Just City 20 The
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Book IX 80 Lawless Desires 81 The R
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Book I
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Back Is it possible to persuade a
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3 Treasure for Heaven See 329d-331b
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5 The Craft of Justice See 332b-334
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6 Benefiting Friends and Harming En
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7 The Advantage of the Stronger See
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8 The Good Shepherd See 339a-348b.
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9 The Blushing Argument See 348b-35
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10 Function, Virtue, and the Soul S
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Book II
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12 The Social Contract Theory of Ju
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14 The Challenge See 360e-362c. Soc
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15 The Teaching of Justice See 362c
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16 Glaucon’s Lover See 368a. Not
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18 Making the Most of Differences S
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20 The Good Soldier See 374a-376e.
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22 Gods Causing Bad Things See 377d
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23 Gods in Disguise or Speaking Fal
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24 Fear and Grief See 386a-388e. So
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Back Can a distinction be made bet
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27 Narrative Style and Personal Int
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28 The Emotional Power of Tune and
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29 Love of the Fine and Beautiful S
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sexually attractive the lovers may
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31 Doctors and Judges See 405a-410a
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32 Harmony in the Soul See 410a-412
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33 Rulers See 412b-414b. It has bee
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35 Private Property, Private Intere
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36 The City as a Whole See 419a-423
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37 Lawfulness Internalized, Legisla
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38 Wisdom in the City See 427d-429a
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40 Temperance in the City See 430d-
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Back families you may be fortunate
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pleasures of the body, with sensual
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43 The Spirited Part of the Soul Se
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Back sufficient to prove that Socra
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Back appetitive part can be educate
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Book V
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47 The Natures of Men and Women See
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Back Consider school sports teams.
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Back
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50 The Waging of War See 466c-471e.
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51 Philosophers and Knowledge of th
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Back imagined on the other? If so,
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52 The Virtues of the Philosopher S
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Back Is the kind of understanding
Page 100 and 101: Back Do the people who would make
Page 102 and 103: Back provided to ordinary students?
Page 104 and 105: 57 The Form of the Good See 504a-50
Page 106 and 107: 58 Every Soul Pursues the Good See
Page 108 and 109: 60 Degrees of Clarity (the Line) Se
Page 110 and 111: Book VII
Page 112 and 113: Back lead them out of the cave? Wh
Page 114 and 115: 63 The Craft of Education See 518b-
Page 116 and 117: 65 Numbers as Summoners See 521c-52
Page 118 and 119: 66 Further Mathematical Studies See
Page 120 and 121: 68 Selecting Students for Philosoph
Page 122 and 123: 70 Completing the Education of the
Page 124 and 125: Book VIII
Page 126 and 127: Back authority, or would it be harm
Page 128 and 129: (chivalry and bushido respectively)
Page 130 and 131: 75 The Oligarchic City See 550c-552
Page 132 and 133: 76 The Oligarchic Soul See 553a-555
Page 134 and 135: 77 The Democratic City See 555b-558
Page 136 and 137: 78 The Democratic Soul See 558c-562
Page 138 and 139: 79 The Tyrannical City See 562a-569
Page 140 and 141: Book IX
Page 142 and 143: 81 The Right Way to Fall Asleep See
Page 144 and 145: Back Imagine a person who is obses
Page 146 and 147: Back What about the democratic cit
Page 148 and 149: 85 The Third Proof: True Pleasures
Page 152 and 153: 87 An Emblem of the Soul See 588b-5
Page 154 and 155: 88 Will the Just Person Take Part i
Page 156 and 157: 89 Return to Poetry See 595a. In Bo
Page 158 and 159: truth are highly entertaining. Cons
Page 160 and 161: 92 A Call to Poetry’s Defenders S
Page 162 and 163: 94 The Soul Without Barnacles See 6
Page 164 and 165: 96 Suffering, Philosophy, and the C
Page 166 and 167: INDEX Numbers are to the 96 section
Page 168 and 169: Definition, 4, 5, 6, 7, 17, 29, 38,
Page 170 and 171: 43, 74, 90, 96 Homosexuality, 16 Ho
Page 172 and 173: Painters and painting, 19, 29, 56,
Page 174 and 175: 79, 82, 83 Suffering, 6, 12, 14, 22
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The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a

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