The Division Of The Soul In Plato's Republic

In order to define what justice is as was questioned in the beginning of Book 4 of Plato’s Republic, Socrates comments that the answer to this is the division of a person’s soul and how they are connected. Socrates states the soul is divided into three parts and as a way to easily deduce justice, compares it to a city with three ranks as he states “a just man won’t differ at all from a just city in respect to the form of justice (435b).” In addition, Socrates also described four traits that the city and person must have, which is being wise, moderate, courageous, and just, and is included in each part of the soul that Socrates believes every person has. Socrates argues that a person’s soul is consisted of parts by using the Principle of Opposites, explaining the role of the ‘spirited part’ of the soul, and links these parts to the definition of justice.

To start off, Socrates states the Principle of Opposites, which explains that if there were to be one thing, there must

be the opposite to balance it off, like being thirsty and not thirsty or being hungry or not hungry. In order to prove that there is also another side to just being thirsty and being impelled to drink, Socrates also asks: “Now, would we assert that sometimes there are thirsty people who don’t want to drink (439c)?” While a person may be thirsty and wants to drink, there is another part of the soul that is overruling the part of the soul that wants to drink, which Socrates calls the rational part of the soul. In his city, the rational, wise part of the soul are the rulers and the appetitive, thirsty part of the soul the producing class; the rulers have good judgement and are really wise while the producing class is where one can find all the desires, but are required to be moderate and obedient to their rulers. With these two traits, both the city is considered to be wise, with the city’s rulers, and moderate, with the producing class. This leads to Socrates’s next question, which asks what the third part of the soul is and what it does in relation to the other two parts of the soul.
At first, it was thought that the spirited part of the soul was something akin to the appetitive part as emotions would influence that part of the soul’s actions.

On the contrary, the spirited part of the soul is different compared to the appetitive part of the soul as Socrates says that the spirited part aligns itself with the rational part of the soul, like guardians carrying out their ruler’s laws. In order for the spirited part to be classified as its own part of the soul, Socrates must also distinguish it from the rational part of the soul as well. To reason for the spirited part of the soul Socrates gives a quote from Homer, which is: “He struck from his chest and spoke to his heart (441b).” In this example, Socrates explains that the calculated part determined what was better or worse in spite of the fact his heart was angry. This part of the soul would be considered the courageous virtue as they are the ones that follow the rational part of the soul and carries out that part’s

decisions.
Socrates states that because each part of the soul contributes to each of the virtues, which is being wise, moderate, courageous, the soul would become harmonies and thus be in balance with each other. He explains that “one who is just does not allow any part of himself to do the work of another part or allow the other classes meddle with each other (443d).” Within Socrates’s city, this means to be just or have justice, no class of the city is having no class do any jobs of any of the other classes or allowing the other classes disturb the work of the others. This also means that the person puts their soul in order and what Socrates describes as being “entirely one, both moderate and harmonious (443e).” When asked how one was to know if their soul is unjust, Socrates explained it is no different than having a healthy body or an unhealthy body. So in relation to being unhealthy, having an unbalanced soul would make it an unhealthy soul and thus an unjust soul.
To conclude, Socrates says that the answer to being just is the division of souls, which is split into three parts, the rational, spirited, and appetitive parts of the soul. Socrates forms a city to identify the three virtues needed to define justice easier, which is being wise, moderate, and courageous. These are obtained through Socrates’s explanation of each part of the soul. In order to prove that there is a rational and appetitive part, Socrates gives the Principle of Opposites, which states that there must be one thing to balance off the other, which in this case is the rational part and the appetitive part of the soul. This then brings up the question of what is the role of the spirited part of the soul to which Socrates answers is the emotional part of the soul, but sides with the rational part and is therefore different than the other two parts of the soul. The spirited part is the virtue of courage, which allows Socrates to define justice as a balance of the three parts of the soul or in harmony with each other. If the soul were to be unjust, Socrates states that like an unhealthy body, the soul is also unhealthy and therefore unjust.