The Thinker 123
calm. We will be able to recall times when our minds and hearts
were balanced in harmony and the world outside seemed serene. We
will recall those states and we will want to reproduce them for our-
selves and to off er them to others. A clear mind and a steady heart
are the best gifts life can off er. How are we to acquire them?
The great book is, among other things, a transvaluation of values.
Plato is writing in the midst of a culture shaped by Homer. His con-
temporaries, fed on the two epics, admire nothing as much as mar-
tial courage. Those who live in the age of Athens aspire to make it
a heroic age.
It is common to believe that the thinker and the warrior are
archenemies. On this matter, Plato’s genius shines through, though
it has not been apparent to all his readers. Most of the world believes
that Plato and Homer are pure antagonists. After all, in Book X of
The Republic Plato banishes the poets— Homer preeminent among
them— from his ideal state. But in fact Plato deeply respects the war-
rior mentality. Plato insists that those who will be the rulers of his
Republic have a strong ele ment of spiritedness in their constitutions.
They must be brave. To Plato spiritedness is a crucial ele ment in
all human beings. We’re all more or less brave. (Freud, who also de-
ploys a tripartite model of the psyche, often said to be beholden to
Plato’s, does not include courage as an integral ele ment of being— the
reasons for this are perhaps becoming evident.) The quality that
Homer celebrates is greatly prized by Plato. However.
It is prized in its place. In the best of men and women— the
philosophers— courage is subordinated to reason. The phi los o-
pher is not intemperate. He does not unthinkingly exchange
blow for blow. When pushed by the likes of an envious and greedy
Agamemnon, he doesn’t leap back ferociously. The thinker is brave,
but he puts intelligence before violent action. What is courage?
Plato asks. The answer is brilliantly apt. In Homer the brave man is
the one who fears nothing. In martial culture the archetype of the