Today I finished Book IV of the Republic of Plato, quite refreshing and toward the end, beautiful.
The practice of law in which I am involved as a professional is the practice of handling and resolving disputes. Then, of course, there is life’s daily tasks in any given moment. Reading Book IV is like soaring with an eagle engaged in the finest of dialogue. I haven’t quite landed yet.
In Book IV, Plato deals with the organization of the ideal city further, which is akin to the organization of the soul, he relates. The guiding principle is harmony, which is the meaning of “moderation,” details Socrates. This resonated with me, and reminded me of something a University of Pittsburgh professor said of my new book of poems, Singing the Forge (David Robert Books 2025). He said, “The poems in Singing the Forge create a philosophy of life centered around the idea of harmony with the universe – even if harmony’s always at the verge of disintegration. They should be paid attention to and cherished for this reason.”
I do think I seek, but do not always find or hold, harmony in my personal life. As Socrates / Plato note in Book IV, harmony in part involves not self-control through disciplinary strictness, but each part of our soul, or of the city, doing the work it is meant to do, and not another’s work. So the famous phrase, “moderation in all things” if defined further by moderation as harmony, also means this alignment of essence with manifestation, a balancing while flowering.
Flowery language aside, Socrates divides the soul into reason, spirit, and appetite. The spirit, at least so far from what I’ve read, is our will power but also our emotional energy. While Socrates indicates at the end of Book IV that we should be ruled by reason, as one would expect from Plato / Socrates, I prefer a few moments before where the wider angle focuses on the harmonic balancing.
Let’s say it this way: It’s not to extinguish desire, but for each part of our humanity to have its due conduct.
In fact “injustice” is sketched as rearing its ugly head out of proportion to this harmony, in the desire to take over, so in rebellion of the just harmonic order.
I like lofty heights. This is not to discount the real task of harmony in one’s nitty-gritty itty-bitty day-to-day. Yet, one can see better down here from a quick flight closer to the stars.
Cheers,
G. H. Mosson
Maryland, USA