Plato’s Theory of Soul
Ish Mishra
The intellectual
world is teleological. That is to say nothing is written without purpose and
each intellectual responds to; reflects upon; provides intellectual explanation
and justification or critique and alternative to the issues and circumstances
prevailing in his contemporary time-space. Plato’s Republic is not an
utopia addressed to no-one but a passionate appeal to fellow Athenians to
overthrow the existing democratic governance that is in his opinion, the
government of fools, which he “vows” to overthrow and replace it with the ideal
state. Though he could not overthrow it, Roman aggressors did, couple of
centuries later. As the state is the institution of managing the common affairs
of humans, Plato, like the modern liber political theorists, begins with the
dissection of human psychology with tripartite assumption of human soul. Plato’s assumptions and views regarding the
soul constitute the foundation and basis of his theory of Justice and thereby
of Ideal State, which shall be elaborated in subsequent sections. Like the Idea
of the Good, Plato avoids defining soul in terms of empirically verifiable
facts but explores the world of desirable philosophical abstractions in the
search of perfection. Plato’s theory of Soul not only lays the foundation of
his theory of justice to be attained in Ideal State ruled by the philosopher
king/queen but is intimately related to his theory of Idea or Form. In fact
soul is the means for the acquisition and comprehension of the Idea or the Form
of good. Plato considers soul to be
above and beyond the visible, bodily person, just the appearance, the essence
lies in the its immortal, eternal, infinite in the soul, not part of the
visible phenomenal world but of invisible world of Ideas or Form, which Plato
uses interchangeably, in an acknowledgment of the spiritualism and the super-naturalism. Soul and conscience, as human attributes do
not exist outside but inside human person and dies with the death of person.
Plato, like Pythagoras
believed in the eternity and transcendence of soul, that is also one of the key
messages of Gita[1]. According to him the
soul is divine and eternal that roams in the world of Ideas and not in the
visible phenomenal world. Theorists of the eternity of soul and its
transcendence from one to another body do not explain the source surplus souls
required for the bodies of the increased population! To quote him from Phaedo,
“The soul is infinitely like unchangeable; even the most stupid person
would not deny that.”[2] He further adds, “What is the definition of
that which is named soul? Can we imagine any other definition than …….. . The
motion that moves by itself”. The motion of soul is first in origin and power that
moves by itself.” He reaffirms in his last work, the Laws, “Motion of
the soul is the first in origin and power.” And, “the soul is most ancient and
divine of all things whose motion is an ever flowing source of real existence.”[3]
A detailed discussion on the theory of
soul is beyond the scope of our present needs. Plato uses his tripartite
assumption of the soul as consisting of the reason; spirit and appetite and
their respective as philosophical tool for his division of society into 3
classes.
The Elements of
Soul
Plato divides the
soul into 3, hierarchical faculties – reason, spirit and appetite, in
descending order. In fact this trilogy of the soul provides the philosophical
foundation of his hierarchal order of the Ideal State, the abode of justice,
his central concern in the Republic. The abode of the lowest faculty, the
appetite is stomach and those of spirit and the reason are chest and the mind
respectively. The appetite is identified in both the Republic as well as
Phaedo with desires; greed; economic gains; physical comforts and sensuous
pleasure. The spirit is identified with fearlessness, valor and warrior like
qualities. The highest faculty of the soul is the reason – simple and
indivisible, eternal and immortal. The reason is beyond the time and space,
whereas spirit and appetite are within the time and space. The reason is,
according to him, immortal and divine whereas spirit and appetite are mortal
and mundane.
The Virtues of Soul
After defining the
soul in terms of its constituent elements, delves into their respective virtues
and thence derives the virtue of soul by integrating them together. Every
particular object has its particular nature and realizing that nature is its
virtue. The nature of teacher is to induce students into critical thinking and
help them in molding themselves into fearless, responsible citizen and in
his/her attempts to invent newer knowledge. If a teacher satisfactorily does
that he is a virtuous teacher. Virtue of a student is to study and discourse to
acquires knowledge and expand in the same way as the virtue of the eyes is
clear vision and of mind is clear
thinking and reasoning. A soul is virtuous if its elements realize their
nature, i.e. be virtuous. He first discusses the particular virtues of
particular elements and combines them to construct a new virtue, superior to
them and their coordinating force – the justice, Plato’s central concern in the
Republic. The virtue of reason is wisdom, that of spirit and appetite are
courage and temperance respectively. A soul is just or virtuous that has the
virtuous faculties and the inferior elements are regulated and directed by the
superior ones. In other words, the spirit and appetite must take directions
from, and obey the dictates of, the reason.
·
Wisdom or Knowledge
There corresponds a
particular virtue to each faculty. The virtue corresponding to the faculty of
reason is knowledge or wisdom. Plato conceptualizes wisdom or knowledge in
specific terms. The knowledge of mundane affairs or the knowledge of particular
skill falls outside its ambit. Knowledge of varieties of soil fit for
cultivation of particular crops or knowledge of medicine for particular disease
is not wisdom. Plato calls them the opinions or technical knowledge. Even the
knowledge of mathematics (arithmetic), geometry, astronomy or any other science
disciplines, which Plato places in the realm of intelligible world, too is not
knowledge, as they too use assumptions based on the objects of the visible
world. He explains it through his, oft-quoted, line diagram. Wisdom does not
come from the study of the objects of the visible world, as if the ideas come
from some vacuum, in opposition to the fact that ideas are abstractions from
the objects and have been historically emanating from them. According to him
wisdom comes from ability to reason and analyze; discus and debate; deliberate
and discourse. Plato’s pessimism does not allow him to accord these
potentialities to anyone but to ‘gifted’ few ‘endowed’ with immanently innate
qualities of excellence in the realm of reason. Plato’s theory of knowledge
shall be discussed below as an independent subtitle.
·
The Courage
Courage is the cardinal
virtue of the spirit. It finds frequent mentions in Republic. Traditionally,
the courage meant manliness. For early Greeks, courage meant fearlessness, even
of the death; patience in difficult situation; velour etc. For Plato courage is
not just warrior like bravery but also firmly defend correct stand.
·
Temperance
The third particular virtue is temperance of restrain that has been
elaborately described in books III & IV of the Republic. It simply means
control of the desires. “To be stronger than one-self”; “To be master of
oneself”; doing not as one wishes but what one ought to.
·
Justice
Apart from the above 3 particular virtue
there is 4th virtue, a superior virtue that harmoniously coordinates
them and is the central concern of the Republic, as is evident from its
subtitle, Concerning Justice.
[To be elaborated in the final draft]
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