Question IX
Since Plato in his Commonwealth, discoursing of the faculties of the soul, has very well compared the symphony of reason and of the irascible and concupiscent faculties to the harmony of the middle, lowest and highest chord (Republic IV 443D), some men may properly ask this question:--
Did Plato Place the Rational or the Irascible Faculty in The Middle? For He is not Clear in the Point.
1. Indeed, according to the natural order of the parts, the place of
the irascible faculty must be in the middle, and of the rational in the highest, which the
Greeks call hypate. For they of old called the chief and supreme `upatos
(or highest), in respect of sublunary things neatos (or lowest).
And long before him, Homer calls the chief God `upatos creiotwn, Highest of Rules. And Nature has of due given the
highest place to what is most excellent, having placed reason as a steersman in the head,
and the concupiscent faculty at a distance, last of all and lowest. And the lowest place
they call neath, as the names of the dead, nerteroi
and 'eneroi, do show. And some say that the south wind,
inasmuch as it blows from a low and obscure place, is called noptos.
Now since the concupiscent faculty stands in the same opposition to reason in which the
lowest stands to the highest and the last to the first, it is not possible for the reason
to be uppermost and first, and yet for any other part to be the one called `upatos (or highest). For they that ascribe the power to the
middle of it, as the ruling power, are ignorant how they deprive it of a higher power,
namely, of the highest, which is competible neither to the irascible nor to the
concupiscent faulty; since it is the nature of them both to be governed by and obsequious
to reason, and the nature of neither of them to govern and lead it. And the most natural
place of the irascible faculty seems to be in the middle of the other two. For it is the
nature of reason to govern, and of the irascible faculty both to govern and be governed,
since it is obsequious to reason, and command the concupiscent faculty when this is
disobedient to reason. And as in letters the semi-vowels are middling between mutes and
vowels, having something more than those and less than these; so in the soul of man, the
irascible faculty is not purely passive, but hath often an imagination of good mixed with
the irrational appetite of revenge. Plato himself, after he had compared the soul to a
pair of horses and a charioteer, likened (as every one knows) the rational faculty to the
charioteer, and the concupiscent to one of the horses, which was resty and unmanageable
altogether, bristly about the ears, deaf and disobedient to whip and spur; and the
irascible he makes for the most part very obsequious to the bridle of reason, and
assistant to it. As therefore in a chariot, the middling one in virtue and power is not
the charioteer, but that one of the horses which is worse than his guider and yet better
than his fellow; so in the soul, Plato gives the middle place not to the principal part
and more than the third. This order also observes the analogy of symphonies, i.e., the
relation of the irascible to the rational (which is placed as hypate) forming the
diatessaron (or fourth), that of the irascible to the concupiscent (or nete) forming the
diapente (or fifth), and that of the rational to the concupiscent (as hypate to nete)
forming an octave or diapason. But should you place the rational in the middle, you would
make the irascible farther from the concupiscent; though some of the philosophers have
taken the irascible and the concupiscent faculty for the selfsame, by reason of their
likeness.
2. But it may be ridiculous to describe the first, middle, and last by
their place; since we see hypate highest in the harp, lowest in the pipe; and wheresoever
you place the mese in the harp, provided it is tunable, it sounds more acute than hypate,
and more grave than the nete. Nor does the eye possess the same in all animals; but
wherever it is place, it is natural for it to see. So a pedagogue, though he goes not
foremost but follows behind, is said to lead ('agein), as the
general of the Trojan army,
Now
in the front, now in the rear was seen,
And
kept command; (Il. XI. 64)
but wherever he was, he was first and chief in power. So the faculties of the soul are not to be ranged by mere force in order of place or name, but according to their power and analogy. For that in the body of man reason is in the highest place, is accidental. But it holds the chief and highest powers, as mese to hypate, in respect of the concupiscent; as mese to nete, in respect of the irascible; insomuch as it depresses and heightens,-- and in fine makes a harmony,-- by abating what is too much and by not suffering them to flatten and grow dull. For what is moderate and symmetrous is defined by mediocrity. Still more is it the objection of the rational faculty to reduce the passions to moderation, which is called sacred, as effecting a harmony of the extremes with reason, and through reason with each other. For in chariots the best of the beasts is not in the middle; nor is the skill of driving to be placed as an extreme, but it is mediocrity between the inequality of the swiftness and slowness of the horses. So the force of reason takes up the passions irrationally moved, and reducing them to measure, constitutes a mediocrity betwixt too much and too little.