Platos say on the soul Introduction:

Plato was a disciple of Socrates and therefore, there are assumptions that they shared beliefs, although without certainty. Platos writings are in dialog form, and therefore it is not at all clear of his say on the soul, but rather deduced. On this presentation I will be presenting Platos view of the soul and from which I will base this talk on two mayor books, which are Phaedo and the Republic. I found that these two works of his contain a lot of details about the soul, without the exclusion of the others. Now citing Thonnard, in A SHORT HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, where he dedicates a chapter to talk of Plato. The human soul is of two parts. The mortal element is the work of the secondary gods; the other emanates from the universal and is spiritual.1 Then Thonnard continues saying that Plato is somewhat obscured and sometimes speaks of the three faculties, to be tree different souls in man. Now we will see the nature of the soul and where Thonnard sums up Platos teachings saying that the soul is a complete spiritual substance, not merely immortal, but eternal, whose union with the body is accidental2. Following from the nature of the soul Plato then considers the soul before, during, and after its union with the body and formulates three conclusions: pre-existence, accidental union (and) immortality3. One, it is about the pre-existence where the soul must have acquired then in an anterior life4. This life of the soul before taking a material body is described as a myth Plato describes the multitude of souls, at the heels of the gods seeking like them to look upon the Ideal world; as a penalty for certain evil deeds, they are hurled down on earth and imposed in bodies5 here the soul is prior to the body and therefore rules and should. Also from the Republic, I bring something we are all most familiar with, that of the allegory of the cave. For Plato the soul is imprisoned in the body and that all that we see are mere shadows of reality that is in the world of the Forms.6 Now I will add from Cardinal Zeferino Gonzales, in order to understand this World of Forms where the soul dwells, he says that the ideas contain and represent what is necessary, immutable and absolute in things. This Ideas are independent, prior, and superior to space, time, individuals and the visible world. But while higher, eternal, non-generable (ingenerabilis impossible to be generated) realities are also universal notions of things, but innate notions that do not bring their origin from the senses, neither from abstractions nor intellectual comparisons. He goes on to the next point where he says that to Plato the Ideas are the true real beings; they are more real than the sensible objects. Hence it is that the visible and material world should be considered as a mere imitation and figure, as an imperfect image of the intelligible world, that is the World of Ideas.7 Second, the union to be called accidental and Plato believes that when the soul is
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F.J. Thonnard, A Short History of Philosophy, 75. Thonnard, 76 3 Thonnard, 76 4 Thonnard, 76 5 Thonnard, 76 6 Plato, The Republic, Loeb Classics, 118 (514a-c to 521a-e) 7 Cardinal Zeferino Gonzales, Historia de la Filosofia Tomo I Segundo Periodo de la Filosofia Griega, 66. El objeto, pues, de la ciencia son las ideas, las cuales contienen y representan lo que hay de necesario, inmutable y absoluto en las cosas. Estas ideas son independientes, anteriores y superiores al espacio, al tiempo, a los individuos y al mundo visible; contienen y representan las ciencias, es decir, la verdadera realidad de las cosas. Pero a la vez que realidades superiores, eternas, ingenerables, son tambin nociones universales de las cosas, pero nociones innatas, que no traen su origen de los sentidos, ni de las abstracciones y comparaciones del entendimiento. as es que las ideas son los

separated it would reach happiness, since the soul existed before the body he would say that the soul is destined to live without the body, which prevents it from contemplating the world of the Forms. Thonnard says we have here an accidental union of two individuals, essentially distinct, and united only by secondary qualities8. Plato despises the body because it seems that it is the cause of many evils, where the body drags the soul to vices. Of the accidental union it is said: By itself the soul has the appearance of a complete substance destined to live independently of the body9, because Plato saw man as the soul that made use of the body, where he compared the soul to a charioteer that controlled the chariot (the body).Now on the immortality of the Soul Thonnard does a great job explaining it, and does so dividing it in three main arguments, first: Participation in a general way, in Ideal reality. Here He says; first of all, invisibility with regard to the senses, and pure intelligibility. Then come simplicity and immutability which are opposed to corruption and prostrate immortality; and finally superiority and domination over material things by which the latter are directed towards order and well-being.10 Second: participation, in a special way, in the Form of Life. In this point it is understood by Thonnard that Plato comes to a conclusion that the forms exclude their opposite, and uses the example of Oddness, must exclude that of Evenness or how snow does not heat. And from there he guides himself to say that the soul participates essentially and intimately in the Form of Lifeand it is of the nature of our soul to move ceaselessly,11 and from he then draws the conclusion that since death is apposite to life, The soul is eternally incorruptible, as is the Form of Life itself. The third argument is that of Moral necessity. Plato argues that the present life does not satisfy the soul, because the body is an impediment for the contemplation of the Forms. And I add that The soul must, therefore, survive in order to the demands of justice and the aspirations of nature be satisfied.12 To Plato the acquisition of happiness consists of wisdom, and not pleasure.

Plato mentions four affections in the soul in the Republic he says: four affections in the soul: intellection or reason for the highest, understanding for the second; assign belief to the third, and to that last picture-thinking or conjuncture13 Aquinas says that Plato held that there were several souls in the body, distinct even as to organs, to which souls he referred vital actions, saying that the nutritive power was in the liver, the concupiscible in the heart, and the power of knowledge in the brain.14 He also writes that The opinion of Plato might be maintained if, as he held, the soul was supposed to be united to the body, not as its form, but as its motor.15 In the definition of soul that Plato gives we can be understood as twofold, the soul as that which allows living beings to perform vital activities, and, in the case of the human soul, as the divine and immortal principle that enables us to knowledge and the

verdaderos seres reales; son objetos ms reales que los objetos sensibles, De aqu es que el m undo visible y material debe considerarse como una manera imitacin y figura, como una concrecin principal, como una imagen imperfecta del mundo inteligible, que es el mundo de las Ideas. 8 Thonnard, 76 9 Thonnard, 76 10 Thonnard, 76 11 Thonnard, 77 12 Thonnard, 78 13 Plato, The Republic, Loeb Classics, 117 (511 E) 14 Summa Theologiae Ia.76.3 15 Summa Theologiae Ia.76.3

good life.16 From the knowledge of the intelligible Plato deribes that the cience is a true remenance of the inteligable Ideas, preexistant and known beforehand, and not a real adquisicition of knowledge or of unknown truths.17

Aquinas says of Plato, (Plato) drew a conclusion between intellect and sense; yet he referred both to an incorporeal principle, maintaining that sensing, just as understanding, belong to the soul as such. From this it fallows that even the souls of brute animal are subsistent18 Aquinas commenting on the soul Plato maintained, holding that man is an intellectual soul;19 Aquinas says; according to the opinion of Plato, the thing understood exists outside the soul in the same condition as those under which is understood; for he understood that nature of things exist separated from matter.20 The rational Soul is that which is defined as divine and immortal, as through which we gain knowledge and the good life. The Irascible Soul is where the will and valor are situated. The greatest influence on the religious thought in Christianity was undoubtedly Plato and his followers. In Plato the soul and the body are two different realities. The soul is divided by nature. It is eternal and immortal, but its association with the body is regarded as its fall from heaven.21

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Javier Echegoyen, Historia de la Filosofia, Volumen 1: Filosofia Griega. Platon interpretael alma principalmente en dos sentidos: el alma como aquello que permite a los seres vivos realizar actividades vitals, y, en el caso del alma humana, como el principio divino e inmortal que nos faculta para el conocimiento y la vida buena. Alma Racional: Parte del humanadode se situan la voluntad y el valor. 17 Desde aqui es que 18 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Ia.75.4 19 Summa Theologiae Ia.76.1 20 Summa Theologiae Ia.76.2 21 Marian Hillar, The Problem of the Soul in Aristotles De Anima, Center for Socinian Studies, http://www.socinian.org/aristotles_de_anima.html