Spirited Motivation and the Two Faces of Thumos

Abstract

Chapter 2 provides a survey of the motivations that Plato considers “spirited” by the lights of tripartite theory. It defends a novel interpretation according to which spirit has a two-sided nature, the most primitive expressions of which appear in Socrates’ analogy between guardians and noble dogs at Republic 375a–376c: aggression toward what is “unfamiliar” or “foreign” (allotrion) on the one hand, and gentleness toward what is “familiar” or “one’s own” (oikeion) on the other. On this view, spirit is the source not only of aggressive and competitive motivations like anger and the desire for honor, for which it is already well-known, but also of friendship and affection for others.