IS THERE METHOD IN THIS MADNESS?these cities win their rational stability only as they are systematically
purged of eros.
At the start of book 5, coercion drives the discussion to its most
perverse extremes. In a scene that echoes that of the opening passages
of the dialogue, Polemarchus takes hold of Adeimantus’ cloak and asks
if they should let Socrates go (449b– c). They then proceed to insist
upon a more detailed account of the economy of eros Socrates means to
impose upon the citizens of the just city.^30 The passage is rife with the
authoritative vocabulary of political coercion. Adeimantus says: “That
which you heard has been resolved by us [devdoktai hJmin]: not to re-
lease you until you have gone through all these things just like the rest”
(4 4 9 d – 450a). Glaucon adds his “vote” and Thrasymachus claims it is a
“resolution” they all support. To this Socrates responds: “What a thing
you have done by arresting me” (450a5). This detention forces Socrates
to discuss not only the manner in which eros is to be thoroughly regu-
lated in the imagined city, but also to introduce the most radical and
hubristic suggestions of the entire dialogue. Chief among these is the
proposal that there will be no perfect justice until “either philosophers
rule in the cities or those now called kings are able to philosophize
genuinely and adequately, and political power and philosophy coincide
in the same place” (473d). The claim is that cities will succumb to the
vagaries of human eros so long as their leaders remain determined by
eros. The solution is to replace erotic leaders with purely rational phi-
losophers, beings who are “able to grasp what is always the same in all
respects” (484b). This, of course, is the height of hubris. To ascribe such
godlike capacities to mere human beings is to fail to “know thyself,” a
failure, according to the Philebus, worthy of laughter.^31
Indeed, Socrates offers this, the so-called third wave, “even if, just
l i k e a n u p r o a r i o u s w a v e , i t i s g o i n g t o d r o w n m e i n l a u g h t e r a n d i l l - r e p u t e ”
(473 c6 – 7). This is not simply a dramatic fl ourish. It serves, rather, an
important methodological function: to force those who hear what fol-
lows to be on guard against the speech about to be offered.^32 Laughter,
which appears throughout the Republic despite its being banned from
the just cities established in speech (388e5ff.), is present even at the
highest and most striking moment of the dialogue, when Socrates intro-
duces the “good beyond being.” Socrates reports that to this “Glaucon
quite ridiculously [mavla geloivw~] said, ‘Apollo, what a demonic excess.’ ”
To which Socrates himself responds: “You are responsible for compel-
ling me to tell my opinions about it” (509b– c). Of those present, only
Glaucon is capable of laughing with, as opposed to at, Socrates. Thus,
it is with Glaucon that Socrates introduces the most radical and ridicu-
lous suggestions of the Republic, suggestions that he is willing to present