The Concept of a

Human Being
Human Being
Human being, a culture-bearing primate
classified in the genus Homo, especially the
species H. sapiens. Human beings are
anatomically similar and related to the great
apes but are distinguished by a more highly
developed brain and a resultant capacity for
articulate speech and abstract reasoning.
Human Being for Plato
 Plato believed that ideas are eternal and true
and that man cannot know ideas through the
senses because the senses deceive
men. Plato also believed that men can arrive at
the truth through reasoning. He believed that
truth is eternal and absolute: what is true today
will always be true.
According to Plato

Considers the World

of Ideas, as the World
of Perfections.
For Plato

A Human Being is
composed of Body
and Soul
According to Plato

The Body as a
Prison of the
Soul
Soul’s Division

•Reasoning
•Spiritedness
•Appetites
Types of Citizens

•Workers - Stomach
•Soldiers - Chest
•Rulers - Head
• Ruler’s Counterpart - in the human
body is the head, which symbolizes
the reasoning part
• Soldier’s Counterpart – is the chest,
which symbolizes spirited part
• Worker’s Counterpart – is the
stomach, which symbolizes the
appetitive part
• People’s lives were destroyed
when they let their actions be
controlled by their appetites
• A life ruled by feelings and
emotions will not be a good
life
According to Plato

Good Life is a life

ruled by reason