9.7: How Much More Unpleasant is the Tyrannical Life?

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 94572

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

See 587b-588a. Immediately upon completion of the third proof, Socrates launches into a more or less ridiculous calculation of how many times more pleasant a just person’s life is than a tyrant’s. (There are many things problematic with the reasoning here. Just to note one thing, no evidence has been given in support of the claim that the amount by which the democratic soul is happier than the tyrannical soul is comparable to the amount by which the oligarchic soul is happier the democratic soul. Likewise for the other soul types. So to infer by “calculation” that one soul type lives more pleasantly than another soul type by a certain quantity of pleasure is unwarranted.) It is hard to know what to make of this passage. Unlike the similarly bizarre calculative passage at 545d-547a, we aren’t told in this case that the Muses are “playing and jesting with us.”

Should we interpret this as humor, as the giddiness that comes after setting down a great dialectical burden?
Could it be that Plato (the puppeteer behind the scenes) wants to remind us that Socrates, however much a lover of wisdom he may be, is onlyhuman?
Could Socrates just be trying to shake us up a bit, challenging us to consider the possibility that the lives different people live are not just a little different with respect to happiness, but worlds apart?