At this point in the conversation, Socrates seeks agreement that we have attempted to discern the virtues in the state (an argument from the whole) so that we may find the virtues in the individual (argument from the whole to its parts). Socrates says that it would be illogical to presume that the virtues, which stem from some indeterminate aspect of each individual man, are to be inferred from the state. So we were correct originally to seek the virtues in man.
Socrates argues thus: It is a given proposition (a self-evident truth) that a given physical body may not be moving and at rest at the same time. But in the case of a child’s toy (a top), we observe that parts of the top are in fact moving and parts are in physical fact fixed, or at rest. This is also illustrated in the case of a man whose feet are fixed but whose hands may be waving (in movement). These properties may appear to be opposites, but they are in fact occurring at one and the same time, not unlike the actions of the ruler who rules and who is a wage-earner at the same time.
We may adduce evidence, Socrates says, from the top, the man fixed and waving his arms, and the deductions we may infer from the state, in that the same properties hold for the human mind, or the soul. At times we may desire a given thing and wish to repulse it, at one and the same time. In such a case, our mental state is said to be ambivalent (attracted and repulsed, at one and the same time). In such a case, our intellectual stance is said to be ambiguous (we are uncertain, troubled). From this, we may deduce that there exist two parts of the human mind: reason and desire, or reason and the passions. In order to determine a third part, or element, which corresponds with the third class in the ideal state, may we not sub-divide one of the two we have determined?
At times we may perceive in ourselves a state of mind in which we do desire a given thing, but we are indignant with ourselves for having desired it: Our mental state may be that of self-disgust; we feel self-anger. These various feelings are all human emotions, and they exemplify a third element of the mind, or soul.
Thus the essential aspects of the mind follow: (1) reason; (2) emotions or the “spirited” element; and (3) desire, or passions. These aspects of the mind correspond to the three classes of the state: reason, to the rulers; emotions or things spirited, to the auxiliaries; and desire or passions (concupiscence is the term Plato adopts) to the craftsmen.
At this point, we discern the four virtues in the individual. In exercising his reason, in which he has been schooled, a man comes to wisdom. In exercising his emotions or spirit, in which he has been schooled, a man displays courage. In permitting his reason to rule over his emotions and desires, a man displays his temperance. What then of justice?
Justice may be said to ensue from temperance, a kind of mental harmony, a state in which all elements of his mind are in concord with one another. As in the state, a tacit (self-evident) agreement must be reached: Reason must be permitted to rule over the emotions and spirited element and permitted to rule over the desires/passions. Thus is justice secured.
