Plato's theory of soul

Likeness of Plato after an engraved gem. The Psyche-wings fastened to his temples allude to his doctrine of the immortality of the soul.[1]

Plato's theory of the soul, which was inspired variously by the teachings of Socrates, considered the psyche (Ancient Greek: ψῡχή, romanizedpsūkhḗ) to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how people behave. Plato considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of a person's 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. Plato divided the soul into three parts: the logistikon (reason), the thymoeides (spirit, which houses anger, as well as other spirited emotions), and the epithymetikon (appetite or desire, which houses the desire for physical pleasures).[2][3]

  1. ^ King, Charles William (1885). Handbook of Engraved Gems (2nd ed.). London: George Bell and Sons. p. 236.
  2. ^ Lorenz, Hendrik (2009), "Ancient Theories of Soul", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2009 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2023-07-05
  3. ^ Kraut, Richard (2022), "Aristotle's Ethics", in Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2023-06-24