GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

66 ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE GREEKS
play their appropriate r61es in subjection to the reasoning
part The virtues of temperance and justice which the
Republic, in answer to Glaucon's and Adeimantus's challenge,
sets out to discover, are identified with the maintenance
of a harmony between the various parts of the soul and
the subordination of the functions of the appetitive and
spirited parts to the reasoning part. The just man in fact
is he in whom every part of the soul knows its own sphere
and is content to keep to it.
3. The third part has its specific virtue which, for
Plato is no ascetic, may be described as the virtue of
enjoyment and satisfaction; but this it will only achieve,
in any full measure, if it is in subordination to the reasoning
part
Books
Platonic Dialogues dealing more particularly with Plato's
ethical theory are the Republic Books I V (for the division
of the soul into four parts, ice Book IV), the Channides, the
Laches, the Protagoras, the Gorgias, the Phaedo and the Crito.
GRUBS, G. M. A. Plato's Thought Chapters IV and VII.
TAYLOR, A. . Plato, the Man and his Work.
An account of the views attributed more particularly to
Socrates will be found in A. E. Taylor's Socrates.