ABSTRACT
A philosopher may be committed to claims about the uses of words even when this is not obvious. An example is Plato’s tripartite division of the soul into a reasoning part, a ‘spirited’ part and a part concerned with bodily pleasures. This looks like a psychological theory as distinct from any claims about language; yet it is based on such claims. Thus, according to Plato, ‘we call the individual courageous . . . when the spirited element preserves, in spite of pains and pleasures, the precepts of reason’; and ‘we call him wise by reason of that other small part . . . which rules and issues these precepts . . .’ (Republic 442c). These are claims about how the relevant language is used.
