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

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Back families you may be fortunate enough to know? How does everyone doing one of the jobs for which he or she is best suited enable wisdom, courage and temperance to flourish in a city? Notice how at 433e Socrates reintroduces Polemarchus’ original “give to each what is owed to him” definition of justice from 331e and incorporates it into the definition he is offering. Do you recall the problems that arose when Polemarchus first set it out? What has become of these problems? Is Socrates serious when he says that “meddling and exchange among these three classes is the greatest harm that can happen to the city,” or is this just hyperbole? Wouldn’t something like enslavement by the Persians, which nearly happened to Athens in 490 BCE and then again in 480, be worse?
42 Parts of the Soul -- Appetitive and Rational See 434d-439e. They have determined to their satisfaction what it is for a city to be just. Now they want to know if this definition can be applied to the soul. Since their definition of justice requires that the city have parts, it cannot be applied to the soul unless the soul also has parts. So Socrates is going to try to prove that the soul has parts, that they are three in number, and that their work in the soul corresponds to the work of the three parts of the city – “the rational part” of the soul corresponding to the rulers of the city, “the appetitive part” of the soul corresponding to the city’s laborers and craftsmen, and “the spirited part” of the soul corresponding to the auxiliaries. The key idea in his argument is stated at 436b-c: “the same thing cannot do or undergo opposite things . . . in the same respect, in relation to the same thing, at the same time.” He has in mind something like this: You are overweight and your doctor has put you on a lowcalorie diet for health reasons. One night, the waitress rolls out the dessert tray, and you are face to face with Chocolate Sin Cake. You must have this cake. But clearly, this would be to break your diet and take a step closer to bad health, and you care about improving your health. You find yourself pulled in opposite directions (to eat and not to eat) with respect to the same thing (the cake) at the same time. Therefore, Socrates would say, your soul must have at least two distinct sources of motivation, an “appetitive” part to desire the cake and a “rational” part to desire health. The example Socrates gives in the present passage is of people who are thirsty, but – for some reason left unspecified – don’t want to drink. The concern in opposition to thirst could be any number of things: health again (the water might be dirty), or courtesy (your friend hasn’t finished giving the toast), or piety (the period of fasting has not ended), or group survival (you and the others in the lifeboat are down to your last pint of water). Socrates offers this example as proof that the soul has a rational as well as an appetitive part. How does he understand the difference between these two parts of the soul? He tells us that the appetitive part desires “the pleasures of food, sex, and those closely akin to them,” and that, of the appetites, the clearest examples are hunger and thirst. It appears then, at first glance, that the appetitive part is concerned with pains and
Page 2 and 3:
The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guid
Page 4 and 5:
19 Luxuries in the Just City 20 The
Page 6 and 7:
Book IX 80 Lawless Desires 81 The R
Page 8 and 9:
Book I
Page 10 and 11:
Back Is it possible to persuade a
Page 12 and 13:
3 Treasure for Heaven See 329d-331b
Page 14 and 15:
5 The Craft of Justice See 332b-334
Page 16 and 17:
6 Benefiting Friends and Harming En
Page 18 and 19:
7 The Advantage of the Stronger See
Page 20 and 21:
8 The Good Shepherd See 339a-348b.
Page 22 and 23: 9 The Blushing Argument See 348b-35
Page 24 and 25: 10 Function, Virtue, and the Soul S
Page 26 and 27: Book II
Page 28 and 29: 12 The Social Contract Theory of Ju
Page 30 and 31: 14 The Challenge See 360e-362c. Soc
Page 32 and 33: 15 The Teaching of Justice See 362c
Page 34 and 35: 16 Glaucon’s Lover See 368a. Not
Page 36 and 37: 18 Making the Most of Differences S
Page 38 and 39: 20 The Good Soldier See 374a-376e.
Page 40 and 41: 22 Gods Causing Bad Things See 377d
Page 42 and 43: 23 Gods in Disguise or Speaking Fal
Page 44 and 45: 24 Fear and Grief See 386a-388e. So
Page 46 and 47: Back Can a distinction be made bet
Page 48 and 49: 27 Narrative Style and Personal Int
Page 50 and 51: 28 The Emotional Power of Tune and
Page 52 and 53: 29 Love of the Fine and Beautiful S
Page 54 and 55: sexually attractive the lovers may
Page 56 and 57: 31 Doctors and Judges See 405a-410a
Page 58 and 59: 32 Harmony in the Soul See 410a-412
Page 60 and 61: 33 Rulers See 412b-414b. It has bee
Page 62 and 63: 35 Private Property, Private Intere
Page 64 and 65: 36 The City as a Whole See 419a-423
Page 66 and 67: 37 Lawfulness Internalized, Legisla
Page 68 and 69: 38 Wisdom in the City See 427d-429a
Page 70 and 71: 40 Temperance in the City See 430d-
Page 74 and 75: pleasures of the body, with sensual
Page 76 and 77: 43 The Spirited Part of the Soul Se
Page 78 and 79: Back sufficient to prove that Socra
Page 80 and 81: Back appetitive part can be educate
Page 82 and 83: Book V
Page 84 and 85: 47 The Natures of Men and Women See
Page 86 and 87: Back Consider school sports teams.
Page 88 and 89: Back
Page 90 and 91: 50 The Waging of War See 466c-471e.
Page 92 and 93: 51 Philosophers and Knowledge of th
Page 94 and 95: Back imagined on the other? If so,
Page 96 and 97: 52 The Virtues of the Philosopher S
Page 98 and 99: 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
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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
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76 The Oligarchic Soul See 553a-555
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77 The Democratic City See 555b-558
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78 The Democratic Soul See 558c-562
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79 The Tyrannical City See 562a-569
Page 140 and 141:
Book IX
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81 The Right Way to Fall Asleep See
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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 150 and 151:
Back Socrates likens the people wh
Page 152 and 153:
87 An Emblem of the Soul See 588b-5
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88 Will the Just Person Take Part i
Page 156 and 157:
89 Return to Poetry See 595a. In Bo
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truth are highly entertaining. Cons
Page 160 and 161:
92 A Call to Poetry’s Defenders S
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94 The Soul Without Barnacles See 6
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96 Suffering, Philosophy, and the C
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INDEX Numbers are to the 96 section
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Definition, 4, 5, 6, 7, 17, 29, 38,
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43, 74, 90, 96 Homosexuality, 16 Ho
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Painters and painting, 19, 29, 56,
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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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