The Republic of Plato by Allan Bloom

Author:Allan Bloom
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780465094097
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2016-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

BOOK IX

“Well,” I said, “the tyrannic man himself remains to be considered—how he is transformed out of the democratic man, and, once come into being, what sort of man he is and how he lives, wretchedly or blessedly.”571 a

“Yes,” he said, “he is the one who still remains.”

“Do you know,” I said, “what I still miss?”

“What?”

“In my opinion we haven’t adequately distinguished the kinds and number of the desires. And with this lacking, the investigation we are making will be less clear.”

“Isn’t it,” he said, “still a fine time to do so?”b

“Most certainly. And just consider that aspect of them I wish to observe. It’s this. Of the unnecessary pleasures and desires, there are, in my opinion, some that are hostile to law and that probably come to be in everyone; but, when checked by the laws and the better desires, with the help of argument, in some human beings they are entirely gotten rid of or only a few weak ones are left, while in others stronger and more numerous ones remain.”

“Which ones do you mean?” he said.c

“Those,” I said, “that wake up in sleep when the rest of the soul—all that belongs to the calculating, tame, and ruling part of it—slumbers, while the beastly and wild part, gorged with food or drink, is skittish and, pushing sleep away, seeks to go and satisfy its dispositions. You know that in such a state it dares to do everything as though it were released from, and rid of, all shame and prudence. And it doesn’t shrink from attempting intercourse, as it supposes, with a mother or with anyone else at all—human beings, gods, and beasts; or attempting any foul murder at all, and there is no food from which it abstains. And, in a word, it omits no act of folly or shamelessness.”d

“What you say,” he said, “is very true.”

“But, on the other hand, I can suppose a man who has a healthy and moderate relationship to himself and who goes to sleep only after he does the following: first, he awakens his calculating part and feasts it on fair arguments and considerations, coming to an understanding with himself; second, he feeds the desiring part in such a way that it is neither in want nor surfeited—in order that it will rest and not disturb the best part by its joy or its pain, but rather leave that best part alone pure and by itself, to consider and to long for the perception of something that it doesn’t know, either something that has been, or is, or is going to be; and, third, he soothes the spirited part in the same way and does not fall asleep with his spirit aroused because there are some he got angry at. When a man has silenced these two latter forms and set the third—the one in which prudent thinking comes to be—in motion, and only then takes his rest, you know that in such a state he most lays hold of the truth and at this time the sights that are hostile to law show up least in his dreams.

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