: 9693 ( 9000 ) The Unity of the Soul in Plato ' s Republic

In Book Four of Plato's Republic, Socrates divides the soul. He argues that because one thing cannot do or undergo opposites in the same respect, in the same relation, and at the same time, some cases of psychological conflict can only be explained by supposing that the soul is actually more than one thing. But Socrates does not seem to deny that the soul is a unity. Rather, he seems to hold that the soul, like so many entities, is both a many and a one. He refers to the divisions as parts of the soul, and even at the end of Book Four, when he ascribes actions and attitudes to a part of the soul, he also ascribes them to the whole soul (esp. 439a-b, 439d). More generally, throughout the Republic, he treats each agent he discusses as a single locus of responsibility, including even the most psychologically wretched agent, who suffers from tyranny within (572b-580a, esp. 577d13-