Socrates The Tyrant Analysis

In book 9 of Plato’s Republic, Socrates describes the character of a tyrant. All men, Socrates admits, have a lawless and beastly nature. This darker nature displays itself during dreams, while the rational part is sleeping. “Then the wild beast within us, gorged with meat or drink, starts up and having shaken off sleep, goes forth to satisfy his desires; and there is no conceivable folly or crime a man may not be ready to commit.” The difference between tyrants and other men is that tyrants do not rein in the “wild beast” when they awaken, but rather encourage it. The tyrant becomes a slave to his own desires, especially lust, which Socrates identifies as the most dangerous of all desires. Having spent all that he owns, the tyrant resorts …show more content…
The money-maker will contrast the vanity of honour or of learning if they bring no money with the solid advantages of gold and silver. And the lover of honour will think that the pleasure of riches is vulgar, while the pleasure of learning, if it brings no distinction, is all smoke and nonsense to him. And the lover of wisdom will set other pleasures at nothing compared to the pleasures of learning and knowing the truth. How are we to know which class is correct? How are we to know which class has the best life? Socrates argues that there is no better judge than experience. EXAMPLE. Similarly, the man who has the greatest experience of the pleasures of wisdom, honor, and gain will be the best judge as to which is the best class of life. Socrates concludes that the best judge of the classes will be the philosopher. “The philosopher has greatly the advantage; for he has of necessity always known the taste of the other pleasures from his childhood upwards: but the lover of gain in all his experience has not of necessity tasted --or, I should rather say, even had he desired, could hardly have tasted --the sweetness of learning and knowing …show more content…
First, he asserts that the pleasures of the appetitive parts of the soul are not really pleasures at all, but rather, cessations of pain. EXAMPLE( hungry man). But this, according to Socrates, is not true pleasure. “they, not knowing pleasure, err in contrasting pain with the absence of pain. which is like contrasting black with grey instead of white.” Furthermore, the false pleasures of the appetitive and spirited parts of the soul are transitory(not permanent), and less real than the pleasures of the rational part. Food, drink and honors provide temporary relief from the pains of hunger, thirst and vanity. Such pleasures exist within the realm of becoming, and are necessarily less real than those that exist in the realm of being. Truth, wisdom, and knowledge, being concerned with and derived from the realm of being, provide true constant and everlasting