IS THERE METHOD IN THIS MADNESS?musical.^36 Music, however, links the rational and the erotic in a way that
is inherently dangerous to a city founded exclusively on principles of
rational order. Because Glaucon alone of those present is capable of
refl ectively joining together the rational and the erotic, he emerges as
the interlocutor with whom Socrates speaks when the most important
themes of the dialogue are introduced.
Glaucon becomes the central fi gure of the dialogue only after
proving himself capable of a kind of philosophical play that tempers the
serious business of rational argumentation with an erotic desire that
prevents reason from calcifying into dogma. Unlike Adeimantus, who
seeks unequivocal answers in rational order, Glaucon is satisfi ed with
no dogma; unlike both Apollodorus and Aristodemus in the Symposium,
Glaucon is no fanatical disciple. Rather, he sees the play of Socrates’
approach and seeks to join with him in it. This is demonstrated not
only by Glaucon’s ability to laugh with Socrates, but also by Socrates’
decision to focus his pedagogy fi rmly on Glaucon during the discus-
sion of the Divided Line, the allegory of the Cave, and the “song of
dialectic” (532a). By directing his educational efforts toward Glaucon
and introducing him to this “song” which must proceed hypothetically
rather than dogmatically, Socrates is able to force Glaucon to recognize
both his own erotic desire to know and its limitations. Glaucon, like
Socrates, fi nds himself in the erotic position of the philosopher who ap-
preciates at once how hard it is to accept Socrates’ assertion that there
is, in fact, the good, the just, and the beautiful, and how diffi cult it is
not to accept these things (532d). He has in some sense recognized the
profound philosophical importance of positing the good, the just, and
the beautiful as erotic principles that drive human beings to pursue a
better, more just, and beautiful embodied existence.
Here Plato’s grounding strategy dovetails with the demonstrative
strategy to profound philosophical effect. As Eva Brann has suggested,
the only city founded in deed as opposed to merely in speech in the
Republic is the community established between Socrates and Glaucon.^37
The establishment of this community is demonstrated by the very action
of the dialogue, which is directed throughout toward the conversion
of Glaucon’s soul by Socrates. This is the political core of the Republic,
established in book 1, when Socrates breaks off his taming of Thrasy-
machus to focus Glaucon’s attention on the profound choice he must
make—to live a just or unjust life (347e)—and reinforced by the Myth
of Er in book 10, when Socrates calls out Glaucon by name (618b9ff.,
621b9ff.) as he tells the fate of those who fail to choose the life of justice.
Thus the Republic, like the Symposium, shows what it cannot argue for in
exclusively rational terms: the just life is spent attempting to weave a vi-