ANCIENT GREEK CONCEPTION OF MAN

Brief Intro on Plato:

● Greek Philosopher (428-348 BC)
● A student and follower of Socrates
● Almost all writings were in dialogue form featuring Socrates (Socratic Dialogues)
● He established the Academy in Athens
● Father: Ariston of Athens ; Mother: Perictione
PLATO’S TWO WORLDS THEORY
● The first world is perfect and is referred to as the World of Being
(ideal/immaterial/spiritual world).
● The second world is the imperfect world called the World of Becoming (material/physical
world).
WORLD OF BECOMING (PHYSICAL/MATERIAL WORLD)
● Inhabited by all tangible objects
● world we perceive through our senses
● Copy of the ideal world (not true reality)
● world is always in movement, always changing
(Individual objects like a red book, a round ball, a beautiful girl, a just action, or a
good person reside in the physical realm)
WORLD OF BEING (IDEAL/IMMATERIAL/SPIRITUAL WORLD)
● Plato refers to as “Forms” or ideas
(to be classified as forms, it should be eternal, perfect, transcendent, objective)
(concepts like Redness, Roundness, Beauty, Justice, or Goodness are Forms)
● absolute, independent, and transcendent (beyond human experience)
● never changes and yet causes the essential nature of things we perceive in the world of
Becoming
- An object cannot be in the World of Being, but an object being that object, can.
- The tree cannot be in the World of Being, but treeness is. (The physical object
itself belongs to the physical world while the essence of the object belongs to the
ideal world ; A CHAIR BELONGS TO THE PHYSICAL WORLD WHILE ITS
CHAIRNESS BELONGS TO THE IDEAL WORLD)
TWO WAYS IN WHICH BOTH WORLDS CAN INTERACT (through participation)
>Objects in the material world may be only imperfect copies or imitations of the ideal
>Objects may participate in the formness they are representing
An example (retrieved from Study.com):
“Let's consider a specific example. Think of a square. Now draw a picture of a square on
a piece of paper. I will also draw a picture of a square on a piece of paper. Our pictures are
likely a bit imperfect; maybe our lines aren't exactly straight, or our angles aren't exactly 90
degrees. In addition, your picture and my picture are likely a little different - different sizes,
different colors, etc. To put it in Plato's terms, our pictures of squares reside in the physical
realm.

Despite their imperfections and differences, though, there's something about our pictures that
unites them. So what exactly is it that makes both of our pictures squares? The 'it' that makes
our pictures squares is the Form of Square. You and I share a similar concept or ideal of what
'square' is, even though our pictures of squares turned out slightly different. To put it in Plato's
terms, the concept and ideal of Square resides in the Realm of Forms and is, therefore, perfect,
abstract, and unchanging. Plato would say that this Form of Square is more real than our
physical drawings of a square.”

PLATO’S THEORY OF THE SOUL

● In Plato’s theory, he claims that the only happy person is the just person, or a person
ruled by Reason.
● The soul consists of 3 basic energies which are: Reason, Emotion, and Appetite.
Reason has the greatest value while Emotion and Appetite are regarded as the “lower
passions”. The Reason governs the soul which keeps the Emotions and Appetite under
control.
● This theory can be found in one of his works: “The Republic”, where it is a response to
the challenge of the Sophists as to why one ought to live morally.

IT HAS 3 PARTS NAMELY:

1. Rational
- that is the thinking element in every human being, which decided what is factual and
merely obvious, judges what is factual and what is untrue, and intelligently makes
sensible decisions.
- oversees both the appetitive and spirited because it “is really wise and exercises
foresight on behalf of the whole soul” (Republic, 441e).
- thinks and determines what the other part of the soul should do (It makes the decision
to not eat when the appetitive wants to eat something poisonous. It also allows the
appetitive to drink when it’s thirsty. Likewise, when the spirited is angered, the rational
knows when to fight and when not to. When the spirited gets out of line it can fight at the
wrong time or the wrong people.)
- ruling class (telling the soldiers where and when to fight and the working class what to
do)
- the person is able to distinguish well between fantasy and reality
- logistikon

2. Spirited
- one that produces the desires that love victory and honor. Emotions like indignation and
anger are the impact of the disappointment of the spirit.
- experience strong emotions, particularly anger and temper
- desire to do good and be good, because in Plato's view, it was spirit that enabled
courage and passionate principle. He considered this part to be partnered with the
logistikon or rational soul, since both of them work in favor of righteousness and justice
- brings man to action (His love for his country moves him to act. His anger at his enemy
causes him to attach. His care for his family moves him to work.) (Without the spirited,
man would not perform actions beyond basic needs.)
 - soldier or guardians of the city (They are the ones who enforce the law and go out to
fight the enemy. Out of love for their city they act for the good of all in fighting.)
- thymoeides

3. Appetitive
- the one that is accountable for the desires in people. It is accountable for the effortless
cravings required to stay alive like hunger, thirst, and for pointless cravings like desire to
over feed. The desires for essential things should be limited by other sections of the
soul, while illegitimate desires ought to be limited entirely by other elements of soul.
- “intensity of its appetites for food, drink, sex, and all the things associated with them…”
- part of man that hosts the ‘animal’ or ‘basic’ desires
(This doesn’t mean it’s bad in any sense. It has its place in telling the body when it is hungry
or thirsty. Without these desires, the body would cease to function.)
- represented by the stomach as that which needs food and basic needs
- compared to the working class (Though they do not rule, they make the city run by owning
businesses, growing food, and making the economy.)
- largest part of the soul
- epithymetikon

ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

● Plato realizes that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, etc., without (so
far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of Forms.
● In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato distinguishes between people who mistake sensory
knowledge for the truth and people who really do see the truth.
● Allegory of the Cave uses the metaphor of prisoners chained in the dark to explain the
difficulties of reaching and sustaining a just and intellectual spirit.
● Every day, these people in the caves watched shadows projected on a blank wall. For
them, these shadows are real and they shape their entire reality.
● Now imagine that one of the prisoner’s leaves the cave and walks outside into the
sunshine.
● For the first time in his life, he is exposed to sunshine and light. He can now finally see
the “true” forms, shapes and reality of the shadows he thought were real.
● The Allegory of The Cave’ by Plato – The Meaning
○ The Allegory of the cave by Plato should not be taken at face value. In essays
and exams, whoever is marking it expects you to have a deeper understanding of
the meaning of the theory. You can then use these to think about criticisms and
then to form your own opinion.
● The Cave
○ In Plato’s theory, the cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes
from what we see and hear in the world – empirical evidence. The cave shows
that believers of empirical knowledge are trapped in a ‘cave’ of
misunderstanding.
● The Shadows
○ The represent the perceptions of those who believe empirical evidence ensures
knowledge. If you believe that what you see should be taken as truth, then you
 are merely seeing a shadow of the truth. In Plato’s opinion, you are a ‘pleb’ if you
believe this (their insult for those who are not Philosophers)!
● The Game
○ The Game represents how people believe that one person can be a ‘master’
when they have knowledge of the empirical world. Plato is demonstrating that
this master does not actually know any truth, and suggesting that it is ridiculous
to admire someone like this.
● The Escape
○ The escaped prisoner represents the Philosopher, who seeks knowledge outside
of the cave and outside of the senses.
○ The Sun represents philosophical truth and knowledge
○ His intellectual journey represents a philosophers journey when finding truth and
wisdom
● The Return
○ The other prisoners reaction to the escapee returning represents that people are
scared of knowing philosophical truths and do not trust philosophers.

Brief Intro on Aristotle:

● A Greek Philosopher (384-322 BC)
● Father, Nicomachus: personal physician to Amyntas II; Mother, Phaestis: aristocratic
descent
● Enrolled in Plato’s famed school, the Academy, to study Philosophy, Mathematics, and
the Sciences, up until Plato’s death 20 years later.
● Tutored Alexander the Great around 343 BC
● Established an institution of higher learning, called the Lyceum
● Influenced Western Thought and Islamic Philosophy

THREE KINDS OF SOULS OF ARISTOTLE

● The soul is one of the components of man (the other being the body)
● The soul is considered, by Aristotle, as a “principle of life so that every living being has a
soul because it has life”
a. Vegetative - proper to plants
■ The most primitive level are the entities which simply nourish
themselves,grow, reproduce.
■ All living entities has this type of soul, but one type has only this, and that
is vegetables, or plants as we would call them today.
■ And consequently, this set of powers- nutrition, growth, reproduction- is
called the “vegetative soul,” or sometimes the “nutritive soul.”
■ most widely shared among all living things.
■ anything that takes in nutrition, grows from this nutrition, and eventually
decays over time has a soul.
b. Sentient - proper to animals
■ Living entity with the power of sense perception
 ■ actualization of potentialities established by the vegetative soul.
■ the part of the soul that allows us to perceive the world around us.
■ It encompasses the senses but also allows us to remember things that
happened to us, experience pain and pleasure, and have appetites and
desires.
(TAKE NOTE: Aristotle believed that animals and humans both possess the
sensible soul. However, he asks the question if animals have the capacity for
belief. Belief would seem to imply conviction. Conviction would seem to imply
that a creature was persuaded, because one can not be convinced of something
without being persuaded in some way. Finally, persuasion would seem to imply a
rational function of measuring possibilities and drawing conclusions, a function
that Aristotle believed animals did not possess.)
c. Rational - soul of man
■ has all of the powers of living beings, especially the rational power (to
nourish, grow, reproduce, sense, feel and move)
■ the rational soul is that by virtue of which we possess the capacity for
rational thought.
■ Has the capacity to think, to grasp universals or abstract forms, to reason
■ Aristotle divides rational thought into two groups:
● Passive Intellect
○ It is the part of our mind that collects information and
stores it for later use.
○ This is almost an extension of the sensible soul in that it
allows us to act upon the information gathered by that part
of the soul.
● Active Intellect
○ is the part that allows us to engage in the actual process of
thinking.
○ It allows us to take our sensory input, combine it with our
memories and skills and apply it to our betterment.

EUDAIMONIA
●
● Came from two Greek words: Eu-: good, Daimon: soul or “self”
● In its simplest form, eudaimonia is often taken to mean happiness. Sometimes it is
translated from the original Ancient Greek as welfare, sometimes flourishing and
sometimes as well being
● Concept of Eudaimonia comes from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, his philosophical
work on the ‘science of happiness’

*With a general consensus on the idea that Eudaimonia reflects “pursuit of virtue, excellence
and the best within us” That is, he believed eudaimonia was rational activity aimed at pursuing
‘what is worthwhile in life’
*Aristotle Believes that happiness and well-being come from how we live our lives. And that’s
not in pursuit of material wealth, power or honor. Rather eudaimonic happiness is about lives
lived and actions taken in pursuit of eudaimonia.

● In Greek Philosophy, Eudaimonia means achieving the best conditions possible for a
human being, in every sense, not only in happiness, but also virtue, morality, and a
meaningful life.
● It was the ultimate goal of Philosophy: to become better people, to fulfIll our unique
potential as human beings.
● You can achieve Eudaimonia, ArIstotle argued, by:
● Working hard
● Cultivating your virtues
● Excelling at whatever tasks nature and circumstances come to you.
● Eudaimonia consists of the good performance of the characteristic function of human
beings, whatever that may be, and human virtue or excellence is that combination of
traits or qualities that enables humans to perform that action well.
● Aristotle believes that the characteristic function of human beings, that which
distinguishes them from all other things is their ability to reason
● According to Plato, Eudaimonia was the highest and ultimate aim of both moral thought
and behavior.
● Plato noted that even "Evil" people feel guilt at doing something which is clearly wrong,
and, even when there is no fear of punishment, doing what is wrong simply makes
people miserable. He further refined the idea of eudaimonia, claiming that the rational
part of the soul or mind must govern the spirited, emotional, and appetitive parts in order
to lead all desires and actions to Eudaimonia, the principal constituent of which is virtue.
Resources and Citations:

Philosophy: Toward an Understanding and Appreciation of the Human Person

https://baringtheaegis.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-three-types-of-souls-of-aristotle.html?m=1
https://www.philosophyzer.com/the-allegory-of-the-cave-by-plato-summary-and-meaning/
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-allegory-of-the-cave-120330
https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm
http://cms.campus.aynrand.org/campus/globals/transcripts/aristotles-psychology-the-nature-of-
the-soul-sense-perception-and-thought
https://tomblackson.com/Ancient/chapter53.html
https://philosophycourse.info/platosite/3schart.html
https://study.com/academy/lesson/platos-tripartite-theory-of-the-soul-definition-
parts.html#/partialRegFormModal
https://artscolumbia.org/essays/platos-two-world-theory-48439-59109/
https://torreybookblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/plato-as-simple-as-play-doh/
https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-theory-of-forms-by-plato-definition-lesson-quiz.html
http://www.cyberpat.com/shirlsite/essays/plato.html
http://www.essortment.com/plato-theory-soul-21637.html
https://mayooshin.com/plato-allegory-of-the-cave/
https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_eudaimonism.html
https://positivepsychology.com/eudaimonia/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/eudaimonia
http://baringtheaegis.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-three-types-of-souls-of-aristotle.html?m=1
https://academichelp.net/analysis/platos-argument-for-three-parts-of-the-soul/