The platonic interpretation of the immoralist challenge

Abstract

It is argued that the immoralist position that Plato confronts in Republic I and II, far from presenting a single challenge, actually represents four levels of progressive demand. This tiered structure of the immoralist challenge highlights the fact that the official challenge, formulated by Adeimantus in Republic II, corresponds to a peculiar interpretation that Plato makes of immoralism. This is because the first two levels of the challenge do not introduce the novel possibility of supplanting moral reality by moral reputation, a possibility that is (characteristic of the Platonic interpretation). It is also argued that the Platonic interpretation entails certain problems, to which tentative solutions are offered. Among these problems, the famous objection stands out according to which the notion of justice as psychic harmony that Plato proposes as a response, in Republic IV, seems to change the subject. Finally, it is argued that the tiered structure of the immoralist challenge allows for an adequate answer to this objection, since its last two levels already determine the form that the response offered in Republic IV should take.