PLATO AND THE HERO Plato's thinking on courage, manliness and heroism is both profound and central to his work, but these areas of his thought remain under-explored. This book examines his developing critique of both the notions and embodiments of manliness prevalent in his culture (particularly those in Homer), and his attempt to redefine them in accordance with his own ethical, psychological and metaphysical principles. It further seeks to locate the discussion within the framework of his general approach to ethics, an approach which focuses chiefly on concepts of flourishing and virtue. The question of why courage is necessary in the flourishing life in its turn leads to Plato's bid to unify the noble and the beneficial, and the tensions this unification creates between human and di- vine ideals. The issue of manliness also raises problems of gender: does Plato conceive of the ethical subject as human or male? ANGELA HOBBS is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick. PLATO AND THE HERO Courage, Manliness and the Impersonal Good ANGELA HOBBS University of Warwick CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521417334 © Cambridge University Press 2000 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2000 This digitally printed first paperback version 2006 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Hobbs, Angela. Plato and the hero : courage, manliness, and the impersonal good / Angela Hobbs. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 41733 3 (hardback) 1. Plato — Contributions in concept of courage. 2. Plato — Contributions in concept of masculinity. 3. Courage — History. 4. Masculinity — History. I. Title. B398.C69 H63 2000 179'.6'092 - dc21 99-050142 ISBN-13 978-0-521-41733-4 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-41733-3 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-02897-4 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-02897-3 paperback For my mother, and in memory of my father Contents Acknowledgements page x Preface xii Glossary xvi The puzzle of Plato's thumos i The life of reason and the life of desire i The puzzle of the thumos 3 Thumos or thumoeides? 6 Thumos in Homer 7 The thumos in the Republic 8 Book 2 8 Primary education (Books 2 and 3) 11 Book 4 14 Books 8 and 9 23 The timocratic state and man 27 The thumos as a coherent whole 30 The thumos and Plato's general psychology 31 The meaning of psuche 31 The meaning of 'part' 33 Aristotle 37 Nietzsche 41 Adler 44 Freud 46 Thumos, andreia and the ethics of flourishing 50 Plato's ethical framework 50 Happiness and virtue 52 Just persons and just acts 54 Reason, desire and the self 54 The norms of nature 56 First- and second-order desires 57 Role models 59 Role models and society 67 vii viii Contents Male and female virtue 68 The complexity of courage 74 3 Arms and the man: andreia in the Laches 76 Training men 76 Fighting in armour: Nicias' defence 79 Fighting in armour: Laches' critique 82 Matter and method 84 Socrates' questioning of Laches 86 Socrates' questioning of Nicias 99 Conclusion no 4 Odd virtue out: courage and goodness in the Protagoras 113 Virtue and the virtues 113 Courage, daring and technique 115 The unification of values 123 The pleasures of courage 130 Conclusion 135 5 Why should I be good? Callicles, Thrasymachus and the egoist challenge 137 Man and superman 137 The use and abuse of pleasure 141 The Calliclean challenge 147 Socrates' response to Callicles 151 The philosopher as role model 158 The need for the thumos 162 Thrasymachus and the law 164 Socrates' response to Thrasymachus 170 6 Heroes and role models: the Apology, Hippias Major and Hippias Minor 175 Homeric role models and Alexander the Great 175 The Apology 178 The Crito 186 The Hippias Major 187 The Hippias Minor 193 7 The threat of Achilles 199 Thumos amok 199 The tragic shadow 210 8 Plato's response: the valuable as one 220 The Beautiful and the Good 220 Beauty, goodness and early education 227 Andreia revisited 231 Contents ix Role models for a new age 235 The philosophic ideal 240 9 Alcibiades' revenge: thumos in the Symposium 250 Self-perpetuating heroes 250 The Symposium: thumos as intermediary 250 Alcibiades and the tragic victory 254 Epilogue The weaver's art: andreia in the Politicus and Laws 262 Bibliography 268 Index 277 Acknowledgements During the writing of this book I have benefited from the generos- ity of many. Work on it began whilst I was a Research Fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge, and was completed in the Philoso- phy Department at Warwick University, and I am grateful to my colleagues at both institutions for their friendship and support - and of course for providing me with the opportunity to write any- thing at all. And as some of the ideas and research have their roots in my Ph.D. thesis, I should also like to express my thanks to the Fellows of New Hall, Cambridge, and to the members of the Cambridge Classics Faculty for their assistance throughout. My intellectual debts to individuals are manifold, though no one but myself should be held responsible for - or indeed assumed necessarily to endorse - a single sentence of what follows. My in- terest in ancient philosophy was first aroused, and then nourished, by the teaching and work of M. M. McCabe; I am profoundly grateful both for that early guidance, and for her continued advice and support. Geoffrey Lloyd, Malcolm Schofield and David Sedley are also teachers to whom I owe much. All of them have helped me (whether knowingly or not) with certain issues in the present work, and I have also received invaluable assistance on a number of points from Christine Battersby, Frank Beetham, Paul Cartledge, Christopher Gill, Michael Hobbs, T. I. Irwin, Mary- Hannah Jones, Penelope Murray, Peter Poellner, Christopher Rowe, Dominic Scott, Robert Sharpies, C. C. W. Taylor, Martin Warner, Simon Williams and Michael Whitby. I should also like to take this opportunity to thank the Feminist Philosophy Society at Warwick University for many stimulating discussions, and all my students over many years for their often penetrating questions and robust scepticism about my suggested answers; both groups have made me look at several topics in a fresh light. Acknowledgements xi My greatest intellectual debt, however, is to my former super- visor, Myles Burnyeat, from whose intellectual acuity and breadth of vision I have received immeasurable benefit. He has been gen- erous with his time and knowledge far beyond the call of duty, and he has my deep gratitude and respect. It is a pleasure, too, to record various other forms of help. My long-suffering editor, Pauline Hire, has displayed great patience over a project that took far longer to complete than intended; I have further profited from the painstaking care and useful sugges- tions of my copy-editor, Linda Woodward. Cliff Robinson pro- duced a wonderful cover illustration at very short notice. Profound thanks are also due to my mother and late father for their constant support, good humour and relaxed encouragement - as well as for refusing to let me give up Latin when I was twelve, despite my urgent pleadings. I owe them more than I can say. And David Gibbins has provided strength, succour and wise advice during many periods of the book's production — particularly in the final stages which have coincided with the birth of our beautiful daugh- ter, Molly. For his patience and presence, he has my thanks and love. Preface This book arose initially from my fascination with certain of the Platonic Socrates' interlocutors, and in particular with Callicles and Alcibiades. Why was Plato so ready to give room to the views of such unSocratic and charismatic opponents? The answer, I believed, had largely to do with his abiding interest in different conceptions of manliness and courage {andreia), and hence also with different conditions of the spirited element of the Republic's tripar- tite psuche (the thumos), with which andreia is especially connected. At this juncture I came across Allan Bloom's interpretative essay on the Republic, in which he highlights the central role played by Achilles in Books 2 and 3, and it became evident that Plato's con- cern with Achilles throughout the early and middle dialogues was also part of this interest in notions of andreia. In short, it seemed to me that there was a book to be written on andreia and thumos in early and middle Plato, focusing not only on the theoretical dis- cussions of the Laches and Protagoras, but also on these three char- acters (who were quickly joined by Thrasymachus). Such a study necessarily touches on many overlapping aspects of Plato's thought. The introduction of Achilles inevitably raises the issue of Plato's complex attitude to Homer, and his ambivalent deployment of other Homeric heroes, most notably Odysseus. Such topics in their turn prompt questions concerning role models and education in general, and relations between individual and community. And these questions can only properly be understood when viewed in the context of Plato's overall approach to ethics, which takes the fundamental ethical concerns to be 'how should one live?' and 'what sort of person should one be?' — in brief, an ethics chiefly of flourishing and virtue, rather than one of, say, consequences or duties.