Soul

===Socrates and Plato<!--Linked from 'Emanationism'-->===
[[File:Sanzio 01 Plato Aristotle.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Plato]] (left) and [[Aristotle]] (right), a detail of ''[[The School of Athens]]'', a [[fresco]] by [[Raphael]]]]
{{Main|Plato's tripartite theory of soul}}
Drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the [[essence]] of a person, being that which decides how we behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being. Plato said that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn ([[metempsychosis]]) in subsequent bodies. However, Aristotle believed that only one part of the soul was immortal, namely the intellect (''[[Logos#Ancient Greek philosophy|logos]]''). The Platonic soul consists of three parts:<ref>{{cite book|title = The Gift of Logos: Essays in Continental Philosophy|last = Jones|first = David|publisher = Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year = 2009|isbn = 978-1-4438-1825-4|pages = 33–35|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1RgaBwAAQBAJ&q=plato+soul+logos&pg=PA34|access-date = 2016-02-23}}</ref>
# the ''logos'', or ''logistikon'' (mind, [[nous]], or [[reason]])
# the ''[[Thumos|thymos]]'', or ''thumetikon'' ([[emotion]], spiritedness, or masculine)
# the ''[[Eros (concept)|eros]]'', or ''epithumetikon'' (appetitive, [[motivation|desire]], or feminine)

The parts are located in different regions of the body:
# ''logos'' is located in the head, is related to reason and regulates the other part.
# ''thymos'' is located near the chest region and is related to anger.
# ''eros'' is located in the stomach and is related to one's desires.

Plato also compares the three parts of the soul or psyche to a societal [[Plato's tripartite theory of soul|caste system]]. According to Plato's theory, the three-part soul is essentially the same thing as a state's class system because, to function well, each part must contribute so that the whole functions well. Logos keeps the other functions of the soul regulated.

The soul is at the heart of Plato's philosophy. Francis Cornford described the twin pillars of Platonism as being the theory of the Forms, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.<ref>[[F. M. Cornford|Cornford, Francis]] (1941). ''The Republic of Plato''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. xxv.</ref> Indeed, Plato was the first person in the history of philosophy to believe that the soul was both the source of life and the mind. In Plato's dialogues, we find the soul playing many disparate roles.<ref>Campbell, Douglas (2021). "Self‐Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul". ''The Southern Journal of Philosophy''. '''59''': 523–544</ref> Among other things, Plato believes that the soul is what gives life to the body (which was articulated most of all in the ''Laws'' and ''Phaedrus'') in terms of self-motion: to be alive is to be capable of moving yourself; the soul is a self-mover. He also thinks that the soul is the bearer of moral properties (i.e., when I am virtuous, it is my soul that is virtuous as opposed to, say, my body). The soul is also the mind: it is that which thinks in us.

We see this casual oscillation between different roles of the soul in many dialogues. First of all, in the ''Republic'':<blockquote>Is there any function of the soul that you could not accomplish with anything else, such as taking care of something (''epimeleisthai''), ruling, and deliberating, and other such things? Could we correctly assign these things to anything besides the soul, and say that they are characteristic (''idia'') of it?

No, to nothing else.

What about living? Will we deny that this is a function of the soul?

That absolutely is.<ref>Plato, ''Republic,'' Book 1, 353d.  Translation found in Campbell 2021: 523.</ref></blockquote>The ''Phaedo'' most famously caused problems to scholars who were trying to make sense of this aspect of Plato's theory of the soul, such as Sarah Broadie<ref>[[Sarah Broadie|Broadie, Sarah]]. 2001. “Soul and Body in Plato and Descartes.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 101: 295–308.</ref> and Dorothea Frede.<ref>Frede, Dorothea. 1978. "The Final Proof of the Immortality of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedo 102a–107a". ''Phronesis'', 23.1: 27–41.</ref>

More-recent scholarship has overturned this accusation by arguing that part of the novelty of Plato's theory of the soul is that it was the first to unite the different features and powers of the soul that became commonplace in later ancient and medieval philosophy.<ref name="Campbell, Douglas 2021"/> For Plato, the soul moves things by means of its thoughts, as one scholar puts it, and accordingly, the soul is both a mover (i.e., the principle of life, where life is conceived of as ''self-motion'') and a thinker.<ref name="Campbell, Douglas 2021"/>