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

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sufficient to prove that Socrates is right in thinking that there is a third,
spirited part of the soul?
Is it true that anger never allies itself with appetitive desire? Consider the
fierce defensiveness that can flare up when people trying to hide their drug
addiction are confronted about their problem.
Glaucon suggests at one point that children are “full of spirit right from
birth” even though they are incapable of “rational calculation.” The souls of
newborns presumably lack an active rational part, but is it true that they
have an active spirited part? Newborns cry, of course, but is it ever anger
they express when they cry?
Newborns often cry when they should be sleeping. But is this crying ever in
opposition to a desire to sleep? They need the sleep, but do they desire it?
Do newborns have anything in them to oppose their appetitive desires?
Does the awarding of shiny medals and colorful ribbons to soldiers make
sense? What would Socrates think?