MEDICINE, PHILOSOPHY, AND SOCRATES’ PROPOSALS
TO GLAUCON ABOUT Gumnastikhv IN REPUBLIC 403C–412Bvalue to those who lack the right dispositions. But these dispositions
are formed to a signifi cant degree by one’s customary behavior. Hence,
no one can become a good judge of good and evil, justice and injustice,
unless he lives in a certain way. And this is precisely the point Socrates
is making in this section.
The third proposal is meant to provide Glaucon with another op-
portunity for self-recognition and self-diagnosis and another opportu-
nity to recognize the errors in the project to which he has been assent-
ing since 372c. Socrates wants him to question himself as to whether he
may not be a poor judge of character, his own and that of others, and
this not only because of his own character defects and his own lifestyle,
but also simply because of his youth. Yet he apparently has not yet lost all
capacity to learn from Socrates. Later on, after Socrates has described
the development and nature of the various degenerate character types
(571a– 576b), Glaucon takes over from Adeimantus the role of chief in-
terlocutor. Socrates says to him: “Come, then, and like the judge [krites]
who makes the fi nal decision, tell me who among the fi ve—the king,
the timocrat, the oligarch, the democrat, and the tyrant—is the fi rst in
happiness, who the second, and so on in order” (580a). And Glaucon
answers: “The best, the most just and happy, is the one who rules like a
king over himself” (580b). And in 582d Socrates gets Glaucon to admit
that the lover of wisdom judges (krivnei) best concerning the value of
various types of life.
The Fourth ProposalSocrates’ fourth proposal (410b5– 412b5) is that gumnastikhv and
mousikhv be instituted together not with the intention that the former
train the body (to; swma qerapeuvointo, 410c2) and the latter train the yuchv. R at her, t hey shou ld be inst it uted toget her in order to complement one another in providing a coordinated training for the whole yuchv. Gumnastikhv—the use of physical training, dance, athletic contests, horse races, and the like (412b)—has as its primary purpose not the acquisition of physical strength but rather the “awakening” (ejgeivrwn, 410b6) and “right nurture” (ojrqw~ trafe;n, 410d7) of the spirited part
of the soul, and the harmonizing of the spirited part of the soul with
the wisdom-loving part (411e5– 412a1). It also has an intellectual expres-
sion.^44 Mousikhv, on the other hand, is intended to nurture and arouse
the wisdom-loving part of the soul (410e3, 411d1– 5), to soften, tame,
and temper the spirited part of the soul without suppressing it, and to
make it useful for learning and philosophy (411a9– 11; 411d1– 5). The two
practices have been instituted together for the sake of attuning and coor-
dinating the spirited and wisdom-loving powers of the soul (mousikhvn