9.5: The Second Proof- Who’s to Say?

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See 580c-583a. The second argument is as follows: Each part of the soul has a different kind of pleasure associated with it, and the person ruled by that part of the soul values its associated pleasure as most pleasant. But only the person ruled by the rational part (the philosopher) has experienced enough of all three kinds of pleasure to be in a position to judge between them. And only the philosopher is especially practiced at giving and evaluating arguments – an important skill for being a good judge. Since the philosopher is the best judge of the three kinds of pleasure, the pleasure that the philosopher judges to be most pleasant (“the pleasure of learning the nature of the things that are”) is in truth most pleasant. And so, the person ruled by the rational part of the soul – the just person – will live most pleasantly.

Suppose a wealthy sensualist (a democratic soul) were to go up to Socrates and say, “Listen, Socrates, you say that you philosophers know about the pleasures of the appetitive part of the soul. Well, you think you do, but you don’t. In fact, thinking is just your problem. Thinking keeps you from really enjoying anything outside of philosophy. You talk, talk, talk, forever analyzing our life here on earth. But this is precisely what stops you from ever really enjoying the pleasures of the flesh. You suppose you know what good food or good sex is like. You haven’t a clue. Only the person who embraces sensuality as a vocation, who cultivates its pleasures in all their variety and splendor, who becomes a true connoisseur of this beautiful world (which you so pathetically dismiss as a “cave”) – only such a person is in a position to judge the value of these things.” How might Socrates reply?