Ethical Restraint as Platonist Practice

 30 June 2024

Ethical Restraint as Platonist Practice

“Athenian:  Observation tells me that for human beings everything depends on three needs or appetites, and if they are led correctly by these, virtue results, but if they are led badly, the opposite does.  These are first the need for food, and, second, the need for drink, which are present as soon as they are born, and for which, in all their forms, every creature has an instinctive passion, is full of a mad craving, and is deaf to any suggestion that it must do anything else except satisfy the appetites for all these things and their pleasures, and always rid themselves of all the pain.  Our third and greatest need, however, and our sharpest passion, which, though the last to start, sets people ablaze in a total frenzy, is the most wantonly aggressive and burning one: it is the passion for sowing the seeds of offspring.  These three diseases, turning toward what is best and away from the (so-called) ‘greatest pleasure,’ one must try to restrain with the three greatest restraints – fear, law, and the true reason – appealing to the Muses, of course, and the gods of contests, to help quench their growth and their flow.”

(Plato, Laws, translated by C. D. C. Reeve, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis, 2022, pages 198-199, 782d-783b, ISBN: 9781647920463)

“Ath.  I observe that for human beings everything depends on a threefold need or desire, and that if they are guided correctly by these, virtue results, while if they are guided badly, the opposite.  Of these, the need for food and the need for drink are present as soon as they’re born.  In all this regard, every animal has a natural erotic longing, is full of frenzy, and refuses to listen if someone says it ought to do anything except satisfy the pleasures and desires connected with all these things, and always avoid for itself all the pain connected with them.  Our third and greatest need or erotic longing is that which urges most sharply and comes latest, the one which makes human beings burn with complete madness: that most insolent flame involved in the engendering of offspring.  What is needed is to turn the three illnesses toward what is best and away from what is said to be most pleasant, attempting to restrain them with the three greatest checks – fear, law, and true reason.  These must be reinforced, of course, by the Muses and the gods of contests, in order to quench the growth and spread of the illnesses.”

(Plato, Laws, translated by Thomas L. Pangle, Basic Books, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980, pages 171-172, 782d-783b, ISBN: 0226671100)

1.  I think this is a good passage for understanding the foundation of Platonic asceticism (along with other passages, of course.)  Its basic teaching is that natural desires need to be restrained; if these natural desires are not restrained there is a strong inclination for these desires to run rampant and unchecked.  

2.  Just prior to this passage, there is a section on what happens when there is a lack of restraint in religious practice; when this is unchecked, religious practice can devolve into blood sacrifice of animals, and even human sacrifice is a possibility.  This is contrasted with ‘Orphic’ practices that only offered “pure” substances such as grain, cakes, and so forth, for their religious sacrifices.  I see this as leading to the more general discussion quoted above.

3.  Plato is saying here that simply following natural desires is likely to lead to negative results and that restraint is needed to tame those desires.  Plato states that this restraint can be accomplished through three mechanisms: fear, law, and true reason.  

I think we can understand the use of ‘fear’ in restraint by putting ourselves in the position of advising someone who is expressing these desires in an unchecked manner.  We might point out the negative outcomes of such behavior in order to instill fear in this person.  For example, we might point out the medical dangers involved in unchecked indulgence in these desires, indicating that the person we are speaking to is likely to fall victim to these medical conditions or diseases if they do not restrain themselves.

I think we can understand ‘law’ here is both a legal, legislated, law, and ‘law’ in the sense of rule, or even custom.  As I mentioned in a previous post on a passage in Laws about drinking, consuming alcohol is generally hemmed in by legal restrictions because of the great harm that unchecked consumption of alcohol leads to.  The same applies to sexual desires and the consumption of food.  Generally speaking we do not have a lot of laws enforcing the way food is consumed, but in the context of Laws Plato suggests that eating in a common mess would be good for members of a polis in general.  While this was the custom in Sparta and Crete for men, the same was not the case for women; but Plato suggests that this should also be true for women even though Plato writes that he knows there would be great resistance to this suggestion.  

The third means of restraint is ‘true reason.’  I think by ‘true reason’ Plato means philosophical reasoning.  And by philosophical reasoning Plato does not only mean syllogistic and formal deduction.  Plato also means comparisons such as metaphor, allegory, and myth.  Myths and stories about the triumph of virtue over desire can be taught to people in the service of restraining these basic desires.

4.  The idea is to turn the energy of these desires ‘to what is best.’  Plato adds that this means turning away from what is ‘pleasant.’  I read this as meaning that one should not be guided by pleasure and pain; they are not good guides for a life well lived.  (As an aside, this obviously differs from Utilitarianism.)  Instead, there needs to be a redirection towards the transcendental through the practices of asceticism and contemplation.  These practices lead to ‘what is best,’ the Good and the One.

5.  This passage ends with the remark that the way of restraint should be reinforced through the Muses and the ‘gods of contests.’  In other words, we should ask for divine assistance and guidance.  

I’m not familiar enough with Greek religion to know what the connection is between the Muses and the restraint that Plato is speaking about.  Perhaps it has to do with the sense of balance and order that is the ideal of Greek art; this kind of balance and order is revealed by restraining a natural tendency in the artist for free-form self-expression.

I think by ‘the gods of contests’ Plato is pointing to the challenging nature of ethical restraint (that, in a sense, ethics is restraint of natural impulses.)  In an athletic contest participants engage in a highly disciplined life in order to achieve their goal of athletic prowess.  In a similar way, those practicing the restraint of impulses are challenged to exercise that restraint on a daily basis, to hone their capacity for restraint over time; this leads to a kind of ethical prowess known as virtue.  

In athletic contests athletes are competing with each other.  In the cultivation of restraint, the practitioner is competing with himself; unchecked impulses lead to a kind of fall into materiality, but the inner capacity of restraint, which is found in the higher soul, leads to transcendence.

6.  I see this as a lifelong project; I mean that the practice of restraint is a lifelong commitment for the practitioner of Platonism.  It is like a musician who practices on a daily basis; there is progress as the musician becomes more skilled over time.  Similarly, as the practice of restraint becomes more familiar over time, the Platonist practitioner finds it easier to practice.  But I think it is unlikely, given human nature, that the practice of restraint would ever be put aside entirely.  Instead it becomes a habit that is so strong it becomes what is called ‘second nature.’