Study Questions

1. How will the wise man cultivate the “many-headed animal”?

2. Which of the five characters is the happiest?

3. To which of the other two elements of the soul does spirit always ally itself?

4. With whom is the tyrannical character friends?

5. In what way are pleasures such as food and health inferior to philosophy?

6. Why is being caught good for a wrongdoer?

7. What pleasure governs the lowest of the three elements of the mind?

8. What creature personifies spirit?

9. Why does the philosopher know more about pleasure than, say, the money-grubber?

10. Is the tyrannical man happier when he is a tyrant or when he is a private citizen?

Answers

1. The wise man will cultivate its tamer elements and prevent the wilder ones from growing.

2. The philosopher-king is the happiest.

3. Spirit may be the natural ally of reason, but it will fight it as well as desire if it is not controlled.

4. The tyrant has no friends.

5. These pleasures emanate from the world of change, not from the unchanging world of forms. Their pleasures are therefore illusory.

6. It is good for a wrongdoer to be caught because it gives him an opportunity to try to improve himself.

7. The lowest element is dominated by love of gain or profit, which enable it to achieve its other pleasures.

8. A lion personifies spirit.

9. The philosopher knows the pleasures of gain as well as of knowledge, while the man who loves money knows nothing of the pleasures of philosophy.

10. He is happier when he is a private citizen.