Monday, October 27, 2014

Three Manly Men

In his second argument of book 8, Socrates repeats his argument that the soul is divided into three parts: reason, the spirited part, and desire. So That would mean there exists three basic types of men: the man of reason who seeks knowledge; the "spirited" man who seeks honor and success; and the man of desire who seeks gain (wealth) and satisfaction. Remember that the man of reason possesses knowledge of the Forms, hence, Justice. The first man is the just man; the second, the timocratic man; and the third is a sort of mixture of the oligarchic, democratic, and tyrannical. If we were to ask each of these manly men if he thought himself to be the happiest, each of them would probably answer yes. It's possible that each man may have experienced happiness, but Socrates insists that only the man of reason can experienced the happiness of knowledge because he is the only one of the three who posses it. And the same way with the other two men. So, the man of justice is correct in his judging himself to be the happiest. And it is self-evident that the man of reason is best fitted to judge, since he alone of the three knows Justice.
This is my breakdown of it. If I understood incorrectly, please someone correct me!!!

P.s. I comment on Charlie's. 

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