This inquiry explores the possibility of applying principles from Plato?s education system in the Republic to modern military leadership development programs. Both are concerned with producing a ?guard-dog? that will serve the interests of the state rather than exploit vulnerable civilians. Plato proposes educating guardians with a natural disposition to believe the ?noble lie,? that it is better to serve others than to pursue selfinterest for personal gain; but, would the proper tension in moral sensibilities prescribed by the Platonic Grid help or hinder a military leader to successfully act on the battlefield? First, I examine Plato?s theory to familiarize military leaders with the education system from the Republic; including his views on unity, reality, the theory of the forms, and recollection of knowledge that underlie Plato?s enquiry into the nature of justice, and lead to the need for inner harmony of the soul through the proper tension of wisdom, courage, and temperance to rule the three elements of the soul. Then I analyze the key leaders from the Battle of Balaclava, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the siege of the Alamo for possible correlations of the application of the Platonic Grid aligned with the ?noble lie? to success on the battlefield. This includes inquiry into the likelihood that belief in the ?noble lie? can motivate soldiers to make the ultimate sacrifice. I conclude by examining how Plato?s theories could be assimilated into a military pedagogy to produce modern day ?dogs of war? that leads to the startling conclusion that adherence to the ?noble lie? could also be in the self-interest of the guardian who seeks to serve the best interest of her nation.

This dissertation is a study of appetite in Plato’s Timaeus, Republic and Phaedrus. In recent research is it often suggested that Plato considers appetite (i) to pertain to the essential needs of the body, (ii) to relate to a distinct set of objects, e.g. food or drink, and (iii) to cause behaviour aiming at sensory pleasure. Exploring how the notion of appetite, directly and indirectly, connects with Plato’s other purposes in these dialogues, this dissertation sets out to evaluate these ideas. By asking, and answering, three philosophically and interpretatively crucial questions, individually linked to the arguments of the dialogues, this thesis aims to show (i) that the relationship between appetite and the body is not a matter of survival, and that appetite is better understood in terms of excess; (ii) that appetite is multiform and cannot be defined in terms of a distinct set of objects; and (iii) that appetite, in Plato, can also pertain to non-sensory objects, such as articulated discourse. Chapter one asks what the universe can teach us about embodied life. It argues that Plato, in the Timaeus, works with an important link between the universe and the soul, and that the account of disorder, irrationality and multiformity identifying a pre-cosmic condition of the universe provides a key to understanding the excessive behaviour and condition of a soul dominated by appetite. Chapter two asks why the philosophers of the Republic’s Kallipolis return to the cave, and suggests that Plato’s notion of the noble lie provides a reasonable account of this. By exploring the Republic’s ideas of education, poetry and tradition, it argues that appetite – a multiform and appearance oriented source of motivation – is an essential part of this account. Chapter three asks why Socrates characterizes the speeches of the Phaedrus as deceptive games. It proposes that this question should be understood in the light of two distinctions: one between playful and serious discourse and one between simple and multiform. It argues that the speeches of the Phaedrus are multiform games, and suggests that appetite is the primary source of motivation of the soul addressed, personified by Phaedrus.