Before talking about the stages of digression in the souls, I should explain the five souls, as Plato describes them. The best soul out of the five is the Aristocratic soul. An example of the Aristocratic soul is the philosopher. The aristocratic soul is ruled by reason, with soul second in charge, and the desires third. The desires never play a role in the decision making process of the aristocratic soul. Second in the chain is the timocratic soul. The timocratic soul often feels superior to others, but more often than not, lacks in wisdom. The timocratic soul is ruled by spirit. Spirit, and what the person feels is right, makes the decisions. Reas

" When a young man, reared as we were just saying without education and stingily, tastes the drones' of honey, and has intercourse with fiery, clever beasts who are able to purvey manifold and subtle pleasures with every sort of variety, you presumably suppose that at this point he begins to change from an oligarchic regime within himself to a democratic one." (559 d Line 6 - 559 e Line2)

Augustine also tells of his desire to steal. "Yet I both wanted to steal, and did steal, and I was not forced to it by any kind of want; it was only that I lacked, and despised proper feeling and was stuffed with iniquity." "I had no wish to enjoy what I tried to get by theft; all my enjoyment was in the theft itself and in the sin." (Book II Ch. 4 Lines 6-12) Augustine goes on to tell of his time in Carthage. " I came to Carthage and all around me in my ears were the sizzling and frying of unholy loves."(Book III Ch. 1 Lines 1-2) Augustine fell in love with lust, and the lifestyle he was leading. Augustine wrote The Confessions in hindsight, so he knows that he was not doing the will of God, and although he had tried to turn toward God, he was still partaking in his sinful activities.

Socrates describes the oligarchic soul as " The regime founded on property assessment", "In which the rich rule, and the poor man has no part in ruling office."(550 d Line 1) Again, after describing the oligarchic soul, Socrates describes how decomposition takes place. (559 d Line 2-4) The following excerpt is Socrates description of the transformation from the oligarchic to the democratic soul.

After a brief characterization of democracy, Socrates speaks about its metamorphosis into tyranny. Socrates says that too much freedom, both for man and city, eventually turns into too much slavery. (564 a Line 3-5) Freedom is the greatest catalyst in the move from democracy to tyranny. The most essential characteristic of democracy, is its Achilles heal. In 564 a 6-9, Plato sums up his opinion on the change from democracy to tyranny by inserting; "Tyranny is probably established out of no other regime than democracy, I suppose-the greatest and most savage slavery out of the extreme of freedom." Socrates says that the tyrant will stop at nothing and spare no one in his quest to fulfill that one base desire. "Then the tyrant must gradually do away with all of them, if he's going to rule, until he has left neither friend nor enemy of any worth whatsoever." (567 b Lines 7-9) Book VIII of Plato's Republic, is a very mechanical look at the digression of the forms of the souls. However, it is not very optimistic for the addict, looking to change.

on is second in command, but it's seldom a large factor in decision-making. An example of the timoc

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