Res Cogitans Unpacking the City-Soul Analogy

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, 2017

In the Republic, the city-soul analogy made by Plato paves the way for the entire dialogue. The main interlocutors use the analogy to show the nature of justice and aim to prove that just people live better and are happier than unjust people, by establishing a city to which justice, as defined by them, is applied. Scholars have recently been debating the validity of this analogy. Some critics assert that there are several significant structural inconsistencies and logical misconceptions, thus making the analogy fallacious; at the same time, there are proponents who write extensively in favor of this analogy and defend it against the objections raised. In this paper, I will reexamine passages in the Republic where the analogy first occurs, evaluate the critique made by Bernard Williams, and present arguments defending Plato' strategy. Ultimately, I will show that Plato' city-soul analogy is not as far-fetched as Williams argues and this analogy-as a crucial strategy of Plato'sis efficient and powerful enough in showing the similarities between the city and the soul, for the interlocutors to justifiably and reasonably reach the conclusion that the justice of the individual is the same as that of the city. 7 Plato 370a-b, 374a-c, 394e, 423c-d, 433a, 443b, 453b. 8 Plato 414c-417b. 9 Plato 354a. 10 Plato 428b-429a. 11 Plato 429a-430c. 12 Plato 430e-432b. 13 Plato 434d-435a.

2013

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of the City

Now, the members of this small group have tasted how sweet and blessed a possession philosophy is, and at the same time they've also seen the madness of the majority and realized, in a word, that hardly anyone acts sanely in public affairs and that there is no ally with whom they might go to the aid of justice and survive, that instead they'd perish before they could profit either their city or their friends and be useless both to themselves and to others, just like a man who has fallen among wild animals and is neither willing to join them in doing injustice nor sufficiently strong to oppose the general savagery alone. Taking all this into account, they lead a quiet life and do their own work. Thus, like someone who takes refuge under a little wall from a storm of dust or hail driven by the wind, the philosopher-seeing others filled with lawlessnessis satisfied if he can depart from it with good hope, blameless and content. Well, that's no small thing for him to have accomplished before departing. But it isn't the greatest either, since he didn't chance upon a constitution that suits him. Under a suitable one, his own growth will be fuller, and he'll save the community as well as himself.-Republic 496e-497a

Rhizomata, 2021

One puzzling feature of Plato’s Republic is the First City or ‘city of pigs’. Socrates praises the First City as a “true”, “healthy” city, yet Plato abandons it with little explanation. I argue that the problem is not a political failing, as most previous readings have proposed: the First City is a viable political arrangement, where one can live a deeply Socratic lifestyle. But the First City has a psychological corollary, that the soul is simple rather than tripartite. Plato sees this ‘First Soul’ as an inaccurate model of moral psychology, and so rejects it, along with its political analogue.

2020

This book is a lucid and accessible companion to Plato’s Republic, throwing light upon the text’s arguments and main themes, placing them in the wider context of the text’s structure. In its illumina� on of the philosophical ideas underpinning the work, it provides readers with an understanding and apprecia� on of the complexity and literary ar� stry of Plato’s Republic. McAleer not only unpacks the key overarching ques� ons of the text – What is justi ce? And Is a just life happier than an unjust life? – but also highlights some fascina� ng, overlooked passages which contribute to our understanding of Plato’s philosophical thought.

Journal of Ancient Philosophy, 2018

In this paper, I contend that the standard interpretation of the Republic, according to which “the city of pigs” (CP) is an entirely deficient precursor to the one ideally just state, Kallipolis, is untenable. In the vital respect of unity, which for Plato is the defining condition of virtue in the soul and the city, CP is equally if not more just than Kallipolis. In part 1, I outline CP in terms of what I contend are the three organizing principles that secure its unity (“trade specialization”; “right size”; and “modesty”), before proceeding to defend this unity from some typical criticisms. The aim is to show that CP is unified and hence just, which allows us to make sense of why Socrates describes it as “complete” (telea), “true” (alêthinê), and “healthy” (hugiês), despite Glaucon’s protestations. To do so, I will have to first argue against objections from those who interpret CP as a suggestio falsi, or an exercise in playful irony, sketched only to establish the need for Kallipolis. In part 2, I then proceed to show that although Kallipolis is in certain respects superior to CP, it suffers from structural disunity relating to its heretofore unnoticed or downplayed geographical and social scissions—scissions that are requisite and unavoidable for its very organization. As such, Socrates tacitly suggests, I contend, that these scissions mark a disunity that results from reneging CP’s third organizing principle: the “modesty” principle. When Socrates, on his interlocutors’ demands, expands CP by allowing in items and conditions of luxury that provoke pleonexia (greed or covetousness) thus giving birth to the “feverish city,” he leads us to see the necessity of a kind of set-up in Kallipolis with a socially and geographically disparate class of guardians that is saturated by disunity. The overall argument of this paper is that Socrates takes us on a dialectical journey, leading us to see that unity and hence justice in each city depends upon each citizen doing her job and no more than her job (i.e., the principle of trade specialization) (433A-B). Both CP and Kallipolis are sketched for this heuristic purpose— to allow us to see this vision of justice. Socrates’ point in taking us on the dialectical journey, I contend, is to enable us to realize not just what justice is but what inhibits or threatens justice—namely, luxury, or more precisely wealth. CP is not a good model to allow us to see this, but this does not render it a suggestio falsi or an unrealistic false start. Indeed, on my reading, Socrates is not only serious when he dubs the city of pigs true and healthy, but we have to take these pronouncements seriously in order to properly accompany him on the journey and properly see his vision of political justice and injustice.

2023

I presented this paper at the 2023 Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association. The paper begins from the observation that, in Books II-VII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates founds three different cities-in-speech. This fact raises a number of questions, which this paper seeks to (very briefly) answer. First, what are the essential characteristics of each of the three cities, and how should one understand the relation between them? That is to say, what is the logic of the progression from one city to the next? Second, given that the city-in-speech is introduced as a likeness of the soul, should the three different cities be understood to represent three different souls? If so, what is the logic of the progression from one soul to the next? Third, and most importantly, how does this progression of cities and souls bear on the overall question of Plato’s Republic, whether or not justice is good-in-itself for the just individual?

Some scholars maintain that there is no logical progression between the first three cities constructed in Plato's Republic. In this paper I show that they are wrong. On the view I shall defend, the dialectic of Plato's civic architecture is centred on an account of justice as geometrical equality. The first city expresses this account by assigning social roles on the basis of τέχνη. The second city disrupts the geometrical schema in order to accommodate the human desire for greatness and self-knowledge, with the third city re-establishing the geometrical pattern by means of poetic catharsis, a noble lie, and the placement of an armed camp.

Why does the Republic describe the city and the soul as consisting of three parts -- including the fighting spirit called thumos? A sample chapter from my new book.