OUSEION - Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative ...

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 209
ness"? In other words. is the connotation of "manliness" essential or
contingent? There is the further problem of whether Plato sees the goal
of philosophy as the attainment of a "humanly." rather than manly.
ideal. or instead a divine one that ultimately eclipses any notion of humanity
at all. It is not the least of the virtues of Hobbs's book that for
every difficult question posed. there arise ever more challenging ones.
Chapters 3 and 4 (on the Laches and Protagoras respectively) deal
with Plato's preliminary attempts at overhauling the notion of andreia.
Hobbs correctly notes that at Republic 430b a definition of andreia appears
that is in fact a combination of the second and third definitions of
andreia offered in the Laches. In other words. the Laches furnishes the
ingredients for the reader to infer that knowledge and thumos are necessary
(if perhaps still not sufficient) conditions for andreia. As Charles
Kahn remarks. however. this particular reading was first made by Bonitz
in 1871 and echoed in subsequent commentators.' It is admirable
that Hobbs comes to this same conclusion. but acknowledgement of her
predecessors would have been appropriate. As for the Protagoras.
Hobbs believes that its definition of andreia ("wisdom concerning what
things are and are not to be feared") represents a significant advance
over that given in the Laches, in that a supporting theory of the unity of
values is supplied. Hobbs concludes. however. that both dialogues ultimately
fail in their quest for a satisfactory account of the virtues since
they both lack "a more complex account of psychic structure and motivation"
(135) which. of course. is precisely what the Republic supplies
with its tripartition of the psuche.
In Chapter 5. "Why should I be good? Callicles. Thrasymachus and
the egoist challenge." Hobbs sees Callicles. Thrasymachus and. as we
shall see later. Alcibiades (ch. 9) all as representatives of the "ungoverned
thumos." In particular, Hobbs believes that the Platonic thumos-as
manifested in these three thumoeidic types-is. to some extent.
"a living repository of Homeric values" (141 n. 14). A further challenge
that Hobbs sees Plato exploring in the Gorgias is the attempt to establish
as role model the philosopher. Socrates in particular. in contradistinction
to the alluring figure of Callicles. This challenge is met in part
through a fundamental reworking of the notion of andreia. which for
Callicles is predominantly governed by the Homeric thumos and as
such is inextricably entwined with a gendered "manliness." as opposed
to a genderless "courage" as espoused by Socrates. Plato's task then becomes
that of divesting andreia of any necessary connection with
"manliness" without thereby repelling would-be philosophers (pre-
, C.H. Kahn. Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary
Form (Cambridge 1996) 167-168.