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35 - The Republic - Plato · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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Book nine, Part three. Then can you wonder that persons who are inexperienced
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in the truth, as they have wrong ideas about many other things, should
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also have wrong ideas about pleasure and pain and the intermediate state, so that
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when they are only being drawn towards the painful, they feel pain and think
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the pain which they experience to be real, And in like manner, when
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drawn away from pain to the neutral or intermediate state, they firmly believe that
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they have reached the goal of setaeity in pleasure. They not knowing pleasure err
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in contrasting pain with the absence of pain, which is like contrasting black with
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gray instead of white. Can you wonder I say at this? No?
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Indeed I should be much more disposed to wonder at the opposite look at the
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matter. Thus, hunger, thirst, and the like are inanitions of the
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bodily state, Yes, and ignorance and folly are inanitions of the soul.
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True and food and wisdom are the corresponding satisfactions of either, Certainly, and
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is the satisfaction derived from that which has less or from that which has more
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existence than truer clearly from that which has more? What classes of things have
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a greater share of pure existence in your judgment, those of which food and
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drink, and condiments and all kinds of sustenance are examples, Or the class
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which contains true opinion, and knowledge, and mind, and all the different
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kinds of virtue. Put the question in this way, which has a more
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pure being that which is concerned with the invariable, the immortal, and the
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true, and is of such a nature and is found in such natures.
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Or that which is concerned with and found in the variable and mortal, and
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is itself variable and mortal. Far purer, he replied, is the being
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of that which is concerned with the invariable? And does the essence of the
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invariable partake of knowledge in the same degree as of essence, Yes, of
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knowledge in the same degree, and of truth in the same degree. Yes.
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And conversely, that which has less of truth will also have less of
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essence. Necessarily, then, in general, those kinds of things which are
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in the service of the body have less of truth and essence than those which
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are in the service of the soul, far less, And has not the
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body itself less of truth and essence than the soul? Yes, what is
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filled with more real existence, and actually has a more real existence, is
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more really filled than that which is filled with less really existence, and is
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less real. Of course, and if there be a pleasure in being filled
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with that which is according to nature, that which is more really filled with
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more real being, will more really and truly enjoy true pleasure, whereas that
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which participates in less real being will be less truly and surely satisfied, and
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will participate in an illusory and less real pleasure. Unquestionably, those then,
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who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality,
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go down and up again as far as the mean, and in this
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region they move at random throughout life, but they never pass into the true
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upper world. Thither they never look, nor do they ever find their way.
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Neither are they truly filled with true being, nor do they taste of
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pure and abiding pleasure. Like cattle, with their eyes always looking down and
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their heads stooping to the earth, that is, to the dining table,
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they fatten and feed and breed, and in their excessive love of these delights,
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they kick and butt at one another with horns and hoofs which are made
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of iron, and they kill one another by reason of their insatiable lust.
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For they fill themselves with that which is not substantial, and the part of
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themselves which they fill is also unsubstantial and incontinent. Verily, Socrates said,
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Glaucon, you describe the life of the many like an oracle. Their pleasures
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are mixed with pains. How can they be otherwise? For they are mere
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shadows and pictures of the true, and are colored by contrast, which exaggerates
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both light and shade. And so they implant in the minds of fools insane
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desires of themselves, and they are thought about as Descarus says that the Greeks
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fought about the shadow of Helen at Troy in ignorance of the truth. Something
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of that sort must inevitably happen, and must not the like happen with the
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spirited or passionate element of the soul. Will not the passionate man who carries
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his passions into action be in the like case, whether he is envious and
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ambitious, or violent and contentious, or angry and discontented, if he be
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seeking to attain honor and victory and the satisfaction of his anger without reason or
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sense, Yes, he said, the same will happen with the spirited element.
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Also, then, may we not confidently assert that the lovers of money
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and honor, when they seek their pleasures under the guidance and in the company
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of reason and knowledge, and pursue after and win the pleasures which wisdom shows
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them, will also have the truest pleasures in the highest degree which is attainable
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to them. Inasmuch as they follow truth, and they will have the pleasures
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which are natural to them, if that which is best for each one is
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also most natural to him. Yes, certainly, the best is the most
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natural. And when the whole soul follows the philosophical principle, and there is
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no division, the several parts are just, and do each of them their
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own business, and enjoy severally the best and truest pleasures of which they are
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case exactly. But when either of the two other principles prevails, it fails
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in attaining its own pleasure, and compels the rest to pursue after a pleasure
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which is a shadow only and which is not their own true. And the
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greater the interval which separates them from philosophy and reason, the more strange and
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elusive will be the pleasure, Yes, and is not that farthest from reason,
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which is at the greatest distance from law and order? Clearly, And
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the lustful and tyrannical desires are, as we saw, at the greatest distance.
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Yes, and the royal and orderly desires are nearest. Yes. Then
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the tyrant will live at the greatest distance from true or natural pleasure, and
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the king at the least certainly. But if so, the tyrant will live
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most unpleasantly, and the king most pleasantly inevitably. Would you know the measure
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of the interval which separates them? Will you tell me? There appear to
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be three pleasures, one genuine and two spurious. Now the transgression of the
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tyrant reaches a point beyond the spurious. He has run away from the region
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of law and reason, and takes up his abode with certain slave pleasures,
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which are his satellites. And the measure of his inferiority can only be expressed
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in a figure. How do you mean? I assume I said that the
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tyrant is in the third place from the oligarch. The democrat was in the
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middle. Yes, And if there is truce in what has preceded, he
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will be wetted to an image of pleasure, which is thrace removed as to
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truce from the pleasure of the oligarch. He will. And the old gark
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is third from the royal, since we count as one royal and aristocratical,
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Yes, he is third. Then the tyrant is removed from true pleasure by
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the space of a number which is three times three. Manifestly, the shadow,
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then of tyrannical pleasure, determined by the number of length, will be
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a plane figure. Certainly, and if you raise the power and make the
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plain a solid, there is no difficulty in seeing how vast is the interval
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by which the tyrant is parted from the king. Yes, the arithmetician will
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easily do the sum. Or if some person begins at the other end and
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measures the interval by which the king has pardoned from the tyrant in truth of
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pleasure, he will find him when the multiplication is completed, living seven hundred
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and twenty nine times more pleasantly, and the tyrant more painfully by this same
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interval. What a wonderful calculate, and how enormous is the distance which separates
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the just from the unjust in regard to pleasure and pain? Yet a true
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calculation, I said, and a number which nearly concerns human life. If
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human beings are concerned with days and nights, and months and years, seven
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hundred and twenty nine nearly equals the number of days and nights in the year.
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Yes, he said, human life is certainly concerned with them. Then
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if the good and just man be thus superior in pleasure to the evil and
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unjust, his superiority will be infinitely greater in propriety of life, and in
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beauty, and in virtue, immeasurably greater. Well, I said, And
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now, having arrived at this stage of the argument, we may revert to
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the words which brought us hither. Was not some one saying that injustice was
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again to the perfectly unjust, who was reputed to be just? Yes,
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that was said. Now, then, having demonstrated power and quality of justice
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and injustice, let us have a little conversation with him. What shall we
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say to him? Let us make an image of the soul, that he
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may have his own words presented before his eyes. Of what sort an ideal
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image of the soul? Like the composite creations of ancient mythology, such as
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the chimera or Scylla or Cerberus. And there are many others in which two
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or more different natures are said to grow into one. There are said to
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have been such unions. Then do you now model the form of a multitudinous,
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many headed monster, having a ring of heads, of all manner,
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of beasts, tame and wild, which he is able to generate and metamorphose
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at will? You suppose marvelous powers in the artist. But as language is
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more pliable than wax or any similar substance, let there be such a model
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as you propose. Suppose now that you make a second form as an a
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lion, and the third of a man, the second smaller than the third,
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and the third smaller than the second. That he said is an easier
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task. And I have made them as you say, And now join them,
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and let the three go into one that has been accomplished. Next,
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fashion the outside of them into a single image as of a man, so
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that he who is not able to look within and sees only the outer hull
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may believe the beast to be a single human creature. I have done so,
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he said. And now to him who maintains that it is profitable for
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the human creature to be unjust and unprofitable to be just. Let us reply
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that, if he be right, it is profitable for this creature to feast
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the multitudinous monster, and strengthen the lion and the lion like qualities, but
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to starve and weaken the man, who is consequently liable to be dragged a
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boat at the mercy of either of the other two. And he is not
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to attempt to familiarize or harmonize them with one another. He ought rather to
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suffer them to fight and bite and devour one another. Certainly, he said,
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that is what the approver of injustice says to him. The supporter of
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justice makes answer that should he ever so speak an act as to give the
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man within him, in some way or other, the most complete mastery over
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the entire human creature, he should watch over the many headed monster like a
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good husbandman, fostering and cultivating the gentile qualities, and preventing the wild ones
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from growing. He should be making the lion heart his ally, and in
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common care of them all, should be uniting the several parts with one another
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and with himself. Yes, he said, that is quite what the maintainer
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of justice say. And so from every point of view, whether of pleasure,
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honor, or advantage. The approver of justice is right and speaks the
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truth, and the disapprover is wrong and false and ignorant. Yes, from
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every point of view. Come now, and let us gently reason with the
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unjust, who is not intentionally in error. Sweet sir, we will say
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to him, what think you of things esteemed noble and ignoble? Is not
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the noble that which subjects the beast to the man, or rather to the
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god in man, and the ignoble that which subjects the man to the beast.
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He can hardly avoid saying, yes, can he now not if he
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has any regard for my opinion? But if he agree so far, we
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may ask him to answer another question. Then how would a man profit if
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he received gold and silver on the condition that he was to enslave the noblest
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part of him to the worst. Who can imagine that a man who sold
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his son or daughter into slavery for money, especially if he sold them into
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the hands of fierce and evil men, would be the gainer, however large
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might be the sum which he received. And will any one say that he
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is not a miserable catiff who remorselessly sells his own divine being to that which
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is most godless and detestable. Erriphilee took the necklace as the price of her
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husband's life. But he is taking a bribe in order to compass a worse
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ruin, Yes, said Glaucon, far worse, and I will answer for
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him. Has not the intemperate been censured of old? Because in him the
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huge, multiform monster is allowed to be too much at large? Clearly?
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And men are blamed for pride and bad temper when the lion and serpent element
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in them disproportionately grows and gains strength. Yes, And luxury and softness are
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blamed because they relax and weaken the same creature and make a coward of him.
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Very true, And is not a man reproached for flattery and meanness who
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subordinates the spirited animal to the unruly monster, and for the sake of money
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of which he can never have enough, habituates him in the days of his
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youth to be trampled in the mire, and from being a lion to become
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a monkey, true, he said, And why are mean employments and manual
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arts reproach only because they imply a natural weakness of the higher principle. The
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individual is unable to control the creatures within him, but he has to court
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them, and his great study is how to flatter them. Such appears to
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be the reason, and therefore, being desirous of placing him under a rule
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like that of the best, we say that he ought to be the servant
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of the best, in whom the divine rules, not as Strasimachus supposed to
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the injury of the servant, but because every one had better be ruled by
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divine wisdom dwelling within him, or, if this be impossible, than by
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an external authority, in order that we may be all, as far as
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possible, under the same government, friends and equals. True, he said,
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and this is clearly seen to be the intention of the law, which
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is the ally of the whole city, and is seen also in the authority
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which we exercise over children, and the refusal to let them be free until
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we have established in them a principle analogous to the constitution of a state,
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and by cultivation of this higher element, have set up in their hearts a
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guardian and bruler like our own. And when this is done, they may
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go their ways. Yes, he said, the purpose of the law is
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manifest. From what point of view, then, and on what ground can
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we say that a man is profited by injustice or intemperance, or other baseness
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which will make him a worse man, even though he acquire money or power
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by his wickedness. From no point of view at all, What shall he
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profit if his injustice be undetected and unpunished. He who is undetected only gets
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worse. Whereas he who is detected and punished has the brutal part of his
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nature silenced and humanized. The gentler element in him is liberated, and his
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whole soul is perfected and ennobled by the acquirement of justice and temperance and wisdom,
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more than the body ever is by receiving gifts of beauty, strength,
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and health, in proportion as the soul is more honorable than the body.
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Certainly, he said, to this nobler purpose, the man of understanding will
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devote the energies of his life. And in the first place he will honor
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studies which impress these qualities on his soul, and will disregard others. Clearly,
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he said, in the next place, he will regulate his bodily habit
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and training. And so far will he be from yielding to brutal and irrational
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pleasures, that he will regard even health as quite a secondary matter. His
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first object will be not that he may be fair, or strong, or
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well, unless he is likely thereby to gain temperance. But he will always
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desire so to attemper the body as to preserve the harmony of the soul.
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Certainly he will if he has true music in him, And in the acquisition
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of wealth, there is a principle of order and harmony which he will also
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observe. He will not allow himself to be dazzled by the foolish applause of
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the world, and heap up riches to his own infinite harm. Certainly not,
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he said. He will look at the city which is within him,
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and take heeded that no disorder occur in it, such as might arise either
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from superfluity or from want. And upon this principle he will regulate his property
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and gain or spend according to his means. Very true, and for the
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same reason, he will gladly accept and enjoy such honors as he deems likely
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to make him a better man. But those whether private or public, which
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are likely to disorder his life, he will avoid. Then, if that
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is his motive, he will not be a statesman by the dog of Egypt.
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He will in the city which is his own, he certainly will,
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though in the land of his births perhaps not unless he have a divine call.
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I understand you mean that he will be a ruler in the city of
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which we are the founders, and which exists in idea only, for I
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do not believe that there is such an one anywhere on earth. In heaven,
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I replied, there is laid up a pattern of it, methinks,
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which he who desires may behold and beholding, may set his own house in
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order. But whether such an one exists or ever will exist, in fact,
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is no matter. For he will live after the manner of that city,
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having nothing to do with any other. I think so, he said,
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end of Book nine.