Plato's Concept of the Soul

Plato’s famous theory of “The Concept of the soul” can be found within his book The Republic. Here Plato responds to the Sophists on why one should live morally. At the time Sophists were men who used Philosophy for profit they did this by inventing moral loopholes to get people out of obligations. Or excuse peoples of wrong doings or immoral behavior. They questioned Plato by asking, ”Why should one ought to be moral when morality is apparently a social device for maintaining order”. He responds by saying, Morality is a direct cause of happiness, ones happiness directly responds to ones moral behavior. Therefore an immoral person would be moral if they wish to become happy. The already happy person, According to Plato, is the just person. He describes this with a sort of chart. If “X’ is happy, then “X” is just and if “X” is just, then “X” is happy. Plato goes further into detail by dividing the human soul into three Meros, or parts: Logos (reason), Thumos (spirit/emotion) and Eros (appetite). Reason is given the greatest value, while Emotion and especially Appetite are regarded as the "lower passions". Plato believes that the soul is governed by reason. Therefore ones appetites and ones emotions must fall under control of reason; in other words they follow the dictates of reason. Plato believes that the soul should be the state of society, or in his words dikaios (just). He bases his three-parts-of-the-human-soul thesis on the common experience of internal confusion and conflict that all humans share. He discovered that there are three basic activities going on within a person. First, being awareness of a value or a goal. Second, all persons have a drive toward an action which is neutral at first but responds to the direction ...

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...e ‘just’ person has the virtue of courage. In relation to ‘Reason’, the happy or just person possesses wisdom (prudence). In relation to Appetite, the ‘just’ person owns the virtue of temperance, which in return controls the natural desires. Plato says the fourth basic virtue is justice. Justice comes outward from a person and directly influences people by the act of charity and kindness. Plato’s theories seem to make sense at the time but had many noticeable problems. Plato himself at the start of his dialogue states,” it is impossible to arrive at a conception of the human soul scientifically”. His view of the human soul is based on his vision of a perfect society than it is on logic. Plato says, “The soul instead must be viewed as a separate entity within the human being, driven not by society but by an internal, quintessential life force within the human being”.