Plato's Doctrine of the Soul: Theory & Anthropology

Anthropological Theory: Plato's Doctrine of the Soul

For Plato, the soul is prior to man. It existed before his earthly life and will continue after death. The union between soul and body is accidental, temporary, and the body is mortal, but the soul is not. The soul is embodied and conditioned. He founds the division of social classes in society on the tripartite nature of the soul. These three parts: concupiscible, irascible, and rational, in some, fight each other and represent different aspects of the psychological activities of man: appetites, passions, and reason.

The noble and very human soul, the rational soul, is immortal, and its attachment to the body prevents it from living a life of successive incarnations. It suffers and only stops when reincarnated in the contemplation of the world of ideas, of "real reality," the release of matter, and equated to God.

The Myth of the Winged Chariot

In the dialogue Phaedrus, Plato explains the division of the rational soul, irascible, and concupiscible through the myth of the winged chariot: The human soul is like a winged chariot drawn by two horses, of which one is docile and the other difficult to drive. The charioteer who drives the car is the rational soul, the good horse is the irascible soul, and the bad horse is the concupiscible soul. The soul is embodied in various types of bodies according to the degree of familiarity that it has made with the world of ideas or true reality.

Plato relates the problem of the salvation of the soul to the acquisition of knowledge, the science of true reality.

Biography of Plato

• 428 BC: Born in Athens, his real name was Aristocles. At that time, the Peloponnesian War had just started, which would have dire consequences for Athens. Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and Zeno had recently died.
• Born into an aristocratic family, whose members participated in the government of the Thirty Tyrants.
• Plato's youth was marked by the vicissitudes of war. In fact, he did not get to know the time of maximum splendor of the polis.
• Around 407 BC: He met Socrates, became his disciple, and was in close contact and friendship with him until Socrates' death in 399 BC.
• After the condemnation and death of Socrates, he traveled through southern Italy and became acquainted with the Pythagorean school.
• He was in Sicily up to three times.
• 387 BC: After a few failures in Syracuse, he returned to Athens and founded the Academy, which could be considered the first university center in Europe.
• 347 BC: He died at over 80 years old.