The Tripartite Soul in Plato’s Republic
The Platonic soul famously consists of reason, spirit and appetite, except when it does not, as in various parts of the Republic. Socrates arrives at his tripartition after constructing a city divided into three social classes and applying the same structure to the individual soul.
Socrates even warns Glauco that the method they have been using will not determine accurately whether the soul really is tripartite. There is a longer and more extensive way, but Glauco prefers to continue with the less exact method.
The following extract considers what Socrates and Glauco themselves say about the adequacy of the method by which the tripartite soul is established.
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Prior to the discussion about the soul and its virtues in Book IV (with Glauco), Socrates observes that by analogy with the tripartite city, justice will be found in the soul of a man if it too is tripartite, and Glauco agrees with him that determining whether the soul actually is tripartite will be difficult (435a5c8). Socrates declares that in his opinion, this will not be determined accurately with the methods used previously to find justice in the city; “for there is a longer and more extensive way leading to this” (435d3). However, Socrates immediately allows Glauco to be satisfied with the less strict account, and he indeed plays along with an account parallel to that of the tripartite city for the rest of Book IV.
Extract from Chapter 6, ‘The Digression’, in Ivor Ludlam (2014), Plato’s Republic as a Philosophical Drama on Doing Well, p. 182.
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