@article{Kambo2022,
  author    = {Kambo, Kevin},
  title     = {Platonic Tripartition and the Peoples of Middle-Earth},
  series = {thersites 15},
  volume    = {2022},
  journal   = {thersites 15},
  number    = {15},
  editor    = {Amb{\"u}hl, Annemarie and Carl{\`a}-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian and Walde, Christine},
  issn      = {2364-7612},
  doi       = {10.34679/thersites.vol15.219},
  pages     = {90 -- 122},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings employ traditional races from fairy tales: elves, men and dwarves. These peoples are differentiated principally by their dominant desires, but also by their speech, diet, and realms. I argue that these three races are significantly inspired by the three aspects that characterize the Republic's tripartite soul—logistikon, thumoeides, and epithumetikon—along with their respective principal desires: desire for truth, greatness, and material goods. For Tolkien, therefore, these races have a corporate or political psychology that explains who they are as peoples in the history of Middle-earth. I offer a comprehensive view of the major races, connecting the dwarves with the appetitive artisans of the Republic, humans with the honour- and glory-seeking auxiliaries, and elves with the ruling guardians. This treatment explains the artisanal dwarves, as well as the battle-loving men (and women) of Rohan and Gondor, and the nostalgic, 'anamnetic' condition of exile that distinguishes the elves. Indeed, the condition of elves in many descriptions recalls a Platonic philosopher returned to the Cave, as well as the Neo-Platonic sagacity pictured in the biographies of Plotinus and Proclus.},
  language  = {en}
}