A second passage confirms this reading by establishing an even clearer link between the Book 3 discussion of belief “abandonment” and the later account of individual courage. In Book 4, before turning to the virtues of the individual, Socrates first examines and outlines the virtues of the city, anticipating that the latter will illuminate the former. He claims that the city’s fighting class will be responsible for the city’s possession of courage. More specifically, the city will be courageous when its auxiliary class “has the power to preserve (σώσει) through everything its belief about what things are to be feared” (429b8–c1). Courage, Socrates says, is “a certain sort of preservation” (σωτηρίαν, 429c5). When Glaucon asks what sort of preservation he has in mind, Socrates responds, “That preservation of the belief that has been produced by law through education about what things and what sorts of things are to be feared. And by preservation (σωτηρία) of this belief ‘through everything’ I mean preserving (διασῴζεσθαι) it and not abandoning (ἐκβάλλειν) it because of pains, pleasures, appetites, or fears” (429c7–d1). Socrates provides an analogy: those who dye wool aim to do so in such a way that the color is completely absorbed and cannot be washed out. In providing musical and gymnastic training to the young guardians, he says, they were aiming to do something similar — namely, ensure that the youths would “absorb” lawful beliefs so thoroughly that “even such extremely effective detergents as pleasure, pain, fear, and appetite wouldn’t wash it out. ... This power to preserve through everything the correct and lawful belief about what is to be feared and what isn’t is what I call courage (430a1–b4).
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