  This appeal to reason, spirit, and appetite to explain broader  patterns of human thought and action constitutes the  Republic’s second general strategy to support tripartition.  It receives its fullest development in Books Eight and Nine, where  Socrates uses his theory of the tripartite soul to explain a variety  of psychological constitutions. In the most basic implementation of  this strategy, Socrates distinguishes people ruled by reason, those  ruled by spirit, and those ruled by appetite (580d–581e, esp. 581c):  the first love wisdom and truth, the second love victory and honor,  and the third profit and money. This simplistic division, it might be noted in passing, fixes the sides for an ongoing debate about  whether it is best to be a philosopher, a politician, or an epicure  (see, e.g., Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I 5 and X 6–8).  But more important for our purposes here, this basic classification  greatly illuminates the division of the soul.