MEDICINE, PHILOSOPHY, AND SOCRATES’ PROPOSALS
TO GLAUCON ABOUT Gumnastikhv IN REPUBLIC 403C–412Bsive emotions and even represses, forgets, and hides from them, so that
they express themselves in more or less pathological forms of irascibility
and irritability instead of in healthy aggressiveness and hard intellectual
work. He melts away and cuts out of his soul his spiritedness (ejkthvxh/ to;n
qumo;n kai; ejktevmh/... ejk th~ yuch~, 411b3) and becomes a “faint-hearted
warrior” (or “limp spearman”; malqako;n aijcmhthvn, 411b4).^51 If by nature
the person had a weak spirit, he does this quickly. If he had a strongly
spirited nature, he makes his spirit weak and unstable, fl aring up at tri-
fl es and extinguished just as easily, becoming not only irascible and ir-
ritable but also fi lled with discontent, rather than spirited (411b7– 10).^52
Let us notice that Socrates’ explications of the fourth proposal
show Glaucon that there was something wrong with his assent to pro-
posals Socrates had earlier made concerning musical education. Ear-
lier Glaucon had agreed to ban from the povli~ the use of dirges and
lamentations and of any but the Dorian and Phrygian musical modes
in educating the guardians, and to exclude from use the multi-stringed
instruments (accompaniment to epic recitations) and fl utes (accompa-
niment to tragic performances) (398d– 399e). But in 411a Socrates says
that the music of the fl ute and of the sorrowful modes is capable, when
used properly, of softening qumov~ and making it useful:
When someone gives music an opportunity to charm his soul with
the fl ute and to pour those sweet, soft, and plaintive tunes which
we were just discussing [a}~ nundh; hJmei`~ ejlevgomen] through his ear, as
through a funnel, when he spends his whole life humming them and
delighting in them, then, at fi rst, whatever spirit he has is softened,
just as iron is tempered, and from being hard and useless, it is made
useful. (411a5– 11)It is only when someone listens to such music unrelentingly, holding
out and not letting up (ejpicevwn mh; ajnih`/, 411b1), and without balancing
this behavior with some pursuit of gumnastikhv (perhaps of intellectual
as well as physical kinds), that he melts away and cuts out of his soul his
spiritedness, becomes irascible and irritable, is fi lled with discontent,
and perhaps loses hope and courage. Socrates’ lesson for Glaucon is
that he is ignorant of the importance and proper function of a great
deal of good music, and that epic and tragedy contain lessons for him
that he can ill afford to ignore. Unless he avails himself in the right way
of their healing power, his qumov~ will never be properly cultivated or
nurtured, because his perceptions will never be cleansed (411d4– 5).
The fourth proposal attempts to show the spirited and aggressive
Glaucon how he might achieve the kind of knowledge that he needs