Workshop in Ancient Philosophy (Thursday - Week 5, MT24)

Abstract: This paper provides a new account of Socrates’ argument in Republic IV that the soul must have at least two parts (436a-439d). The central issue is how to understand the argumentative role of the so-called principle of non-opposition (436b). I argue against Bobonich, Lorenz, and Stalley’s interpretation, in favor of a more traditional framework. But this framework is sometimes used (e.g., by Irwin and Price) to support a deflationary account of what partition amounts to. I argue that the principle of opposition, when properly understood, really does license the conclusion that there is a single thing, the soul, that has significant structural complexity.