Plato's Republic and His Theory of the Human Soul

In this paper, I will focus on Plato’s elaborate theory of the human soul by examining the arguments of the three distinct parts of the soul and its virtues within the soul. In the dialogue Plato wrote, Plato uses the character, Socrates as a mouthpiece to produce an argument on how in order to find justice in the soul, one needs to seek justice in the city. He uses an analogous analogy to define justice in the soul, known as the luxurious city. In this city, there are 3 classes: rulers, auxiliaries, and craftsmen that all represent specific virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. The rulers represent the virtue of wisdom while the guardians represent the virtue of courage. Craftsman and all the other classes represent temperance. Justice in the city is when the craftsmen, auxiliary, and guardian class mind their own business and not interfering with the business of others.

The conclusion Plato comes up with is that if one can find justice in the soul, then justice comes from the city. Thus, “it is reasonable to believe that the qualities of the city come from the individuals.” (434d-445e) since the city is composed of a community of people who carries these qualities that make up the city. Thus, these qualities suggest that “it is reasonable to think that there is something in one’s soul that makes one spirited, temperate, and wise, and so on” (434d-4453) which leads to the conclusion that the souls have at least three different parts as they come from a person.

Furthermore, Plato asserts that there are at least 3 different parts, which can motivate us to act independently of each other, yet can unify to make a complete soul. To prove this, he mentions “Do we learn with one part, get angry with another, and with some third part desire the pleasures of food, drink, sex, and others that are closely akin to them? Or, when we set out after something, do we act with the whole of our soul, in each case?” (434d-445e), which leads Plato to further elaborate on how the soul is divided into 3 distinct parts: reason appetite, and reason. However, these 3 parts “cannot do or undergo opposite things; not, at any rate, in the same respect, in relation to the same thing, at the same time “principle of opposites (436b-c). These three parts are reason, appetite, and spirit which act independently on different sources of motivation. He gives out different examples to further explain the principle of opposites.

In order to understand the principle of opposites, one must understand the parts individually. The soul is divided into 2 main parts, where reason rules one part while appetite rules the other part but is suppressed to an extent. The third part is spirit where it often allies with reason. Appetite is usually suppressed. Reason is the thinking component part of everyone. It decides on what is factual and untrue. It allows one to make sensible decisions. On the other hand, appetite is one that is accountable for the desires of people. Appetite is accountable for the desires that are needed to survive, such as hunger or thirst. However, it can also lead to unreasonable cravings, such as the insatiable wants that aren’t needed, such as overfeeding. These two parts are distinctly different from another and need some sort of balance where the desires for essential things should be restricted to a certain point while unnecessary desired should be restrained completely. Thus, this leads to the third part: spirit. Spirit is the necessary chain that ensures that reason and appetite are balanced.

Furthermore, conflicts between these parts are categorized: appetite and reason, appetite and spirit, spirit and reason to elaborate its correlation to the principle of opposites. Appetite and reason describe a situation where reason overrules the demands appetite desired, which distinguishes appetite and reason. Plato depicts an example where “We say that some people are thirsty sometimes yet unwilling to drink” (439c-439e). This example presents how there must be different elements acting upon this situation: an element urging to drink yet another stopping the urge to drink. Appetite and spirit are a situation where spirit aids reason spirit will also aid reason in forbidding an act that the appetites demand, which means that spirit is distinct from appetite. An example would be how Leontius had an appetite to look at them yet disgusted at the same time showing the conflict between sexual desires and self-esteem. On the other hand, spirit can act without reason, as children can without any reasoning part of their soul. Finally, there is a difference between spirit and reason. Take Odysseus where his reason “opposes his spirited desire to retaliate against the suitors” proving that spirit and reason are different due to the conflicts between self-esteem and self-interest. Thus, these parts are all different.

Next, the soul and its parts can attain 4 different virtues: courage, temperance, wisdom, and justice. Courage is the knowledge of which “things are properly feared” (429b-c). The soul will be courageous to the extent that one’s spirited part is able to protect itself from harm. Temperance is the soul’s concord between the naturally worse and the naturally better and letting the rational element of the soul reign. Temperance is found in the soul when one’s soul’s parts agree to their roles. Wisdom in the soul is wise in virtue of reason having knowledge of what is useful. Wisdom is found in the soul when one allows one’s rational part to take over and make reasonable decisions. Justice is when the soul is just in virtue of the fact that each element does its own job where ruling and being ruled are concerned (Republic, Slide 66). Justice is found in the soul when means that all three parts of the soul are in psychic harmony.

To sum up, Plato argues that the soul is composed of at least three different, distinct parts by presenting an analogy of justice in the city and how one could then find justice in the soul. In the end, he identifies the soul’s three parts are reason, appetite, and spirit. The four virtues associated with it are courage, wisdom, temperance, and justice which are analogous to the city analogy and where to find them in the soul. Without the 3 parts, it will be very difficult to find justice in the soul as the parts are dependent on one another leading to justice being defined as a system of specialization that allows other virtues to be possible.