ABSTRACT
In Book IV of the Republic, Plato tells an illustrative tale of conflict within the human soul.1 Leontius, when he comes across some dead bodies lying near an executioner, feels a desire to look at them, but also disgust, which makes him turn aside. For some time he fights with himself, covering his eyes with his hand. But in the end his desire gets the better of him; opening his eyes wide with his fingers, he runs to the bodies, saying, ‘There you are, curse you, have your fill of the lovely spectacle.’ Reason here struggles to control the desire to look, and loses the struggle. But there is no doubt where the rights of victory lie; and the ‘spiritedness’ of anger sides with Reason, deploring the outcome.
