4141Medicine, Philosophy,
and Socrates’ Proposals to
Glaucon About Gumnastikhv
in Republic 403c – 412b
Mark Moes
Plato’s dialogues contain many references to Greek medical practice
and medical tradition. Some scholars have even supposed that Plato
portrayed Socrates in many of the dialogues as extending and rein-
terpreting Greek medicine in such a way as to create a kind of prac-
tical philosophy rooted in questions about the nature of human life
and human health.^1 On this supposition, Socrates aims to engender
or facilitate in his interlocutors a virtue comparable to health, and to
free them from vices comparable to illnesses, while his conversational
practice is comparable to the interaction of an astute physician with
his ailing client. The following essay attempts to show the initial plau-
sibility of this supposition and to test it by putting it to work in read-
ing an intriguing passage from the Republic. This essay also maintains
that Plato’s own practice in writing the dialogues is in many ways
similar to Socrates’ practice as depicted in the dialogues. The fi rst
section briefl y brings into focus three passages from the dialogues
that might be construed as evidence for the supposition. The second
draws out some of its implications. The third offers a reading of Repub-
lic 403c– 412b, where Socrates makes a series of proposals to Glaucon
concerning gumnastikhv in the povli~. A fourth and concluding section
addresses the plausibility of a medical model of Platonic philosophy, cor-
responding to the model of Socratic philosophy discussed in the earlier
sections.