The Grouch reads

The Grouch reads:  Mary Margaret Mackenzie , Plato on Punishment.

Mackenzie complains that if we are determinists, we cannot adequately understand our natural tendency toward anger when we are transgressed upon.

Our picture of ourselves as agents, she claims, is destroyed.

That's just not true.

Recall the Platonic/Socratic claim that all desire is for the good.
I may get angry with someone who shits on me, and I may even do it automatically.

But there is still lots of room for me to wonder what is best.  Am I really improving my
life if I strike out at the fellow?  Am I improving his life?  What is the best thing to do?
What will contribute to a better future rather than a worse one?

And, if you tell me that when I reason thusly, I am obeying that Socratic/Platonic
law.....that I am aiming at The Good, then you will be right.  And, that is precisely my point.

Reference:
p. 224, Chapter 12, Plato on Punishment, Univ. of California Press, 1981.

Note:
In effect when M. cites Morris on how Plato's view threaten "our vital sense of ourselves as persons", she is half right.  The Platonic view would require us to think differently (along the lines I sketched above), but that's hardly any kind of conclusive objection.