To understand what lawless appetites are, one must know who would act on such appetites. Also, accounts of necessary and unnecessary appetites are needed to distinguish what constitutes something as a lawless appetite. The Tyrannical man is the child of the democratic man. His father is not untamed; however, he indulges pointless wants. Much the same as the dad, the child is presented to drones, men with lawless wants. However, while the dad had his very own oligarchic dad's thriftiness to pull him toward the center street of democracy, this child, raised on the popularity-based ethos, pushes further toward rebellion. The dad and whole family endeavor to win him back, yet a definitive triumph of the lawless is unavoidable. The triumphant move of the drones is to embed a string erotic love in the child: this adoration itself goes about as a drone and impels him to all way of lawlessness. It makes him excited and frantic, and exiles all feeling of shame and control.
Where the average man may simply dream of these lawless appetites, leaving them to the imagination, the tyrannical man acts upon these desires or urges in the waking life. These urges come from outside influences that corrupt and enter the mind of all. Acting on these urges may feed into a powerful erotic love for the tyrannical man. Socrates conceptualizes this strong erotic love as something like a cancer in the appetitive piece of the soul. Appetite is not in-itself awful; we as a whole have this appetitive part and, in partnership and accommodation to reason, it can just benefit us. The 'strong erotic love' that Socrates portrays is a mutation of the appetitive part. Through continuous molding, the appetitive part builds up a prevailing development. This erotic impulse ends up antagonistic to all convictions and desires that are great or still have some shame and murders them off (573b) and it seeks after neglectfully the crowd of unfortunate and uncivilized wants (573a). The distorted erotic love, "adopts madness as its bodyguard and becomes frenzied." (573b) The soul, now commanded by this transformed erotic love and looking for the lawless pleasures, is now 'drunken,' (573c) and 'deranged' (573d). Thus, the Tyrannical man is born.
There are several varieties of appetitive attitudes. Some are necessary for humans; some are unnecessary but are legal, and some are unnecessary and lawless. The presence of appetite might be perceived through inward experience (reflection) and outer experience. Through inward experience, we perceive the presence of motions which are ensuing as far as anyone is concerned. Through outside experience, we see people and creatures as inclined towards items or ideas they know, or as inclined to keep away from them. We should recollect that learning is the obtaining of forms, of excellencies. A movement pursues the worry of these forms as the intellectual power makes a decision about them to be advantageous or unsafe for the creature. The development of the appetite towards a specific question or far from it pursues quickly upon this judgment.
Necessary appetites seem to be obvious appetites that one would need to function properly in society. The necessary appetites are typically paired with reason, which allows one to act on said appetites to live. One necessary appetite is simply food. We need to eat to take in necessary nutrients in order to live. Necessary appetites seem instinctual, and our body and mind acts on the instinct in order to live. One’s stomach growls out of hunger, then goes to the kitchen, makes a sandwich and eats it. Another necessary appetite is motivation to succeed. Making goals and acting on them is something that drives life for humans and gives us a purpose to keep on living. Without the appetite for motivation, one’s soul may feel lost and without a purpose thus unable live properly.
Unnecessary appetites are those that are not beneficial to one’s soul in order to be just and happy. That being said, these appetites are not harmful at face value, but due to the fact that they are teleologically neutral, they still draw attention away from the necessary desires or appetites. In drawing attention from those necessary appetites, it causes one to not be ultimately happy and therefore just. The acquiring of material goods is a classic example of unnecessary appetite. Accomplishing long-term happiness is hard, particularly when the "standard" exhortation is unappealing: meditate, practice appreciation, work out or focus on the little things. These practices are not difficult to do, but rather they require redundancy, constancy and tolerance. Which is the reason why it feels far less demanding to simply purchase new clothes, new devices, new shoes, and a thousand pointless things that we did not plan to buy amid our "quick" run to the store. The temporary pleasure is momentary, yet when the amassing of products turns into a careless, ceaseless propensity, it really expands more need inside us, instead of giving us the fulfillment we're searching for. Purchasing stuff just makes you need more stuff, while freeing your living space of the unlimited things you don't require really gives you a feeling of thankfulness and peacefulness, instead of a panicky sentiment of want and thirst. Other examples may include, comparing your life to others, living in the past, wasting time doing activities that you do not want to do or simply being negative. All of these examples, although not illegal, are non-beneficial and result in an unhappy life.
Now that the distinction between the unnecessary and necessary appetites have been made, the explanation of the lawless appetite will be easier to define and give accounts for. Where all appetites are instincts that vary in benefitting someone, the lawless appetite are those impulsive appetites that are fueled by a lack of caution and typically will not benefit the one who acts on those appetites. The very basis of the Tyrannical man is acting on such desires, that a just and rational human would be able to regulate and not act on. Although this seems freeing, it is far from it; it is more of a condemning, because seeking out lawless appetite is something that cannot be properly controlled and would ultimately lead to a bottomless pit of always wanting and never fulfilling.
Most if not all accounts of lawless appetites are typically criminal by nature. As described in the Republic the tyrannical man, is one who is an intense lover and always acts on every lawless appetite anyway he can. He loses all hope of moderation and takes things to the extreme that will cause harm to himself and others around him. Being the unhappiest of type of soul, I will give accounts of the tyrant indulging on lawless appetites. The pursuit of lawless appetites itself is drunken, erotic and sad, because things typically get ugly and more regrettable. A man acting on Lawless appetite throws is tormented by the continuous wants of adoration that he can never satisfy. If there is a person who is low on cash and does not want to work, they may tap into their lawless appetite by willingly and with no remorse rob someone else for money. This would include stealing from friends and especially family.
A person giving into their lawless appetite will have no care in disrespecting consecrated spots especially if they do not care for the religion or for the beliefs of others. He will be uninterested in what's good and bad; he is only interested in what would satisfy his needs either materially or sexually. Prior to getting to be in any position of power, these lawless people normally love being flattered: they encircle themselves with admirers and use adulation to get what they require, at whatever point they need. These sorts of individuals do not have any companions; they are not reliable; and they are not just. The more they live in lawless circumstances, the more they sink into their endless pit of lawless appetite.
From the start of book nine, Socrates readdresses the definitions of unnecessary and necessary appetites. Where necessary appetites are those that are typically instinctual by human nature and are required for us to live naturally, just and happy lives. Unnecessary appetites are those that are just that. They are unnecessary to live a just life and are constantly questioned to see if they need to be eliminated. Plato would probably encourage one to throw away or terminate the unnecessary appetites, because they take away the desire from the necessary appetites that will actually benefit us.
Lawless appetites typically only reside in our dreams where the rational part of our mind and soul are taking a break. Most know they cannot and should not act upon these appetites, because they are usually either illegal, would cause you some sort of harm in the long run, or cause harm to someone else. All it takes is someone to not care about the repercussions, for them to willingly act on these desires that will lead them down an infinite, unjust and unhappy path.