The Soul In Plato's The Republic

Origins of Philosophy What is “stuff” made of? From where and from whom does “stuff” come into existence? These were most likely the types of questions the very first philosophers of the West asked. 6th century BCE is estimated to be the time when early Greek philosophers began to take the first steps forward to questioning topics that were often noted as dogmatic (Stumpf 3). Western philosophy took questions about the universe, world, and everything inside of it and searched for a reasonable and logical explanation to elucidate why things are the way they are. Simple answers to questions deemed as dogmatic no longer satisfied or fed their growing curiosities. Subsequent to Western philosophy, Eastern philosophy brought a whole new spectrum of thought to the philosophical world, opening new doors and presenting new insights. Philosophy was created under the basis of understanding the way things work; …show more content…
Due to various differences in factors such as culture and customs, Western and Eastern philosophy vary greatly as shown by the contrasting teachings of Western philosopher Plato and Eastern philosopher Confucius. Here we will …show more content…
Socrates being the speaker in this book presents Plato’s theories concerning primarily justice, but even matters such as ethics, political philosophy, and even the soul. Plato labels the human soul as containing three parts: reason, spirit, and appetite. He goes to say that the soul “is the principle of life and movement”, (Plato, G. R. F. Ferrari, and Tom Griffith). What he meant by this is that the body is nothing without the soul… in fact, it cannot function without the soul entirely. Plato’s theory that the soul is the reason for life and movement, exemplifies Western beliefs and practices. Moral evil was believed by Plato to be the result of ignorance, when the soul’s passions override the soul’s logical reasoning (Stumpf