Plato
Plato's theory of the soul is found in The Republic, where it is part of a response to the Sophists as to why one ought to live morally. The Sophists in Plato's time were men who used philosophy for profit. For a fee they would teach others the art of negotiation and argument. They also would create moral loopholes to excuse what would otherwise be immoral behavior. The skeptics ask Plato why one ought to be moral when morality is apparently a social device for maintaining order. They argue that if there are no consequences to acting unjustly or immorally, then there is no motivational pressure for morality. Plato answers by claiming that morality is a necessary cause of happiness and that one's happiness correlates to one's moral behavior. Therefore, an immoral person would be motivates to be moral in he wants to be happy. The happy person, according to Plato, is the just person. He proves this two ways:1. If X person is happy, then X is just. 2. If X person is just, then X is happy. The response of the skeptics is to claim that the daily reality disproves Plato. They go on to say that contrary to number one, tyrants, motivated by unjust principles, may be found to be happy. Moreover, they argue that saints are k
nown to suffer, rather than to be happy. This is where Plato's theory of the soul is really established. He argues to the contrary that the three basic energies of the soul must be in order for a person to be happy. He categorizes the three parts of the soul as the emotions, the appetites, and reason. Reason, he said, is comprised of thinking, persuasion, and argument and must rule over the emotions and appetites. The emotions were mainly reactions such as fear and anger while the appetites were made of needs for food, sex, and money. It is when the lower passions are ruled by reason that a person is just and truly happy. It is not only the appetites that should not become too powerful in workings of the soul. If the spirit dominates the soul then one becomes a stupid brute. If reason becomes too strong, then one becomes weak and overcultivated. Plato is careful to make the distinction between reason governing the soul, and reason dominating it, just as he shows that the guardians in a city must rule, but not usurp the privileges and tyrannize the money-makers in the city, even if they are able to do so. So when the soul is just, the parts of the souls must not only do their function, but they must also not impinge on the functioning of the other parts. When a soul is just, in
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Approximate Word count = 872
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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