plato on heart in dialogues

Marie Umerkajeff Ideas of human nature (summer 2015)

Introduction I have always been interested in Socratic conversations but never read Plato's dialogues before other then certain passages, such as the cave metaphore etc. The Socratic method is useful in a school setting where the individual already on beforehand has sufficient knowledge to draw correct conclusions, and it is due to confusion or lack of clarity in analysis or low self-esteem that makes the laws of logic not applicable for the person. I am amazed by Platon’s effort to realize and connect abstractions, which I can relate to as a dramateacher. To be human according to Plato seems very much a question of allowing the heart to be involved. This still seems to be the case despite the knowledge that the heart is a muscle and it would be more adequate refering to the brain instead of the blood pump. However during the time for Plato philosophy was not wholly separated from poetry and mythology.1 The Student and the Master Plato (427-347 BCE), one of the most influential persons in philosophy and history of science, the student who brought Socrates (?-399 BCE) to the historiography. Plato has reproduced several events where Socrates is seeking answers in the other. His question is simple but requires commitment and understanding of what it is you think you understand. From Socrates there are not many sources except for the ones coming from Plato. However he is made a fool of in a comedy play by Aristofanes The Cloud which is considered a true source of him being a real person and not just a fictional one made up by Plato. The following is a quote from Socrates, ”To do is to be”. Plato on the other hand had Aristotle (384-322 BCE) as a student at his school, the Academy who since then have had a big impact on how we value and execute knowledge. Conception of reality Plato's interpretation of our existence was a world of ideas to general concepts, and a material world for indvidual concepts. According to Plato we create the true reality by using role models or prototypes in the form of terms for all the different types of objects, animals and humans, situations etc which meets us in what he called the material world. Such a philosophy is still the basis for modern classifications and diagnoses of mental disorders. Since the philosophical theory and conception of life that is linked to the theory that he produced about the true reality consists of abstract concepts of types, size, weight and so on and that we are morally guided by concepts such as courage, rectitude, truth, wisdom, and so on curiousity awoke on how much Plato still influence our way of defining the more non-rational perception of elusive phenomena such as emotions, beauty, bravery, truth, love etc. In that sence I have focued on the metaphore for the most central muscle in our body, the heart.Often when quoting Plato, descriptions expresses that he saw the body as a barrier to experiencing the true reality. Russell, for example, writes:

For empirique the body is that which puts us in contact with the outer world, but for Plato it is a twofold evil, and as a disfiguring medium that makes us see that through the gloom glass, both as a source to desire that leads us away from the path of truth and contemplation of it.2

1 Benjamin Jowett, ’Introduction and Analysis’ in Taemus, by Plato, p. 2. 2 Bertrand Russel, A History of Western Philosophy, 1967, p.130, 131.


Personally, I feel that Plato often weaves in both body and soul in his reasoning, but that one must not forget the body's needs and relate to it in balance with the soul that aches and then estimate of what to do. Research question and objectives I want to study the expression ‘heart’ more closely and try to interpret it in my own way from my point of view as a teacher in drama, which means that the action is the thought itself. However this essay can only start up the intention. Hopefully will I be able to deepen my research later on. Selection and Choice of Texts I have searched within Plato’s work that I could find on Gutenberg project on internet.3 I have only used the versions that have been translated by Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893) British philologist and professor of Greek and produced in the Gutenberg concept by Sue Asscher. There are differing views on how to group and date the dialogues of Plato. Since I took my starting point from Jowett I choose to mention his grouping which is divided in three periods of time the early, middle and late. Socrates are figuring in all early dialogues and they are therefor also known as the Socratic dialogues. The Symposium and the The Republic are considered the centrepieces of Plato's middle period. In the late works Socrates is either absent or a minor figure in the discussion. According to Jewett a new method for doing dialectic is known as "collection and division" featured, he expresses that an conversational attempt to discern the similarities and differences among things in order to get a clear idea about what they in fact are. And this is what philosophy is in the act of doing. Content Frequency of heart The following dialogues have no expressions of heart in them; from the early period of Plato Apology, Charmides, Crito, and Euthypro, middle period, Gorgias, Parmenides, and late period, Statesman. In the following table 1. of Platos texts ’heart’ occurs 89 times. Tabel 1. Platos use of the word heart

Period Title Frequence Middle Cratylus 3 Middle Euthydemus 4 Early Ion 1 Early Laches 1 Late Laws 31 Early Lesser Hippias 1 Early Lysis 2 Early Menexenus 2 Middle Meno 1 Middle Phaedrus 6 Middle Philebus 2 Middle Protagoras 3 Late Sophist 5 Middle Symphosium 5

3 6/12/2015 www.gutenberg.org/files/1658/1658.txt


Middle The Republic 6 Middle Theaetetus 9 Late Timaeus 5

For details on the context in where and how the heart have been used see attachment. To compare the number of hearts in between the texts is irrelevant as they are of different length and serves no real function. After I mapped the use of the heart in the English language I discovered that the word for fireplace ’hearth’ in a house, also comes up within my results when searching for ’heart’. Therefore, I have compared this word wether or not it relates in the same way in any other languages, se table 2. Tabel 2. Comparison between some languages for heart/hearth

Language Word 1 In a context Word 2 English hearth The hearth of the house heart Swedish härd Husets härd hjärta German Herd der Herd des Hauses hertz Russian oчаг (ochag) - cердце (serdste) Greek Η εστία του σπιτιού.

To my disappointment, I could not find evidence for this idea in the Greek language (Εστία). Since I do not master Greek, I realize the impossibility of a thorough investigation on this track.4 This is not entirely a wrong view point though, that a hearth is the home’s center with heat and vital for survival, which might have played a role when chosen the symbol heart to the body's organs and also to express sensations and more abstract phenomenaHowever its seems not to be completely wrong, given that this is my home with warmth and vital for survival has played a role when chosen symbol heart to the body's organs and also to express sensations and more abstract phenomena. Jowett is critical of what he calls a neo-Platonism as too much interpreting, into what it is you want to read in Plato's texts, especially relating to the occult. This is something I searched for and I think I can find evidence of this. As an example, I found Plato's view of the heart on a webbpage about Greek medicine that mentions the chakras and Plato:

The clearest Greek ideas on the chakras come from Plato, who writes about them in his dialogue Timaeus. Basically, Plato considered the chakras to be subtle organs that the soul, or psyche uses to relate to the gross physical body.5

It is true that Platon is discussion the body parts but he is not using the word chakra at any time. So is this a false argumentation? I would think so. At least if one does not enlighten the

4 From Google translate, 2015 07 20. 5 http://www.greekmedicine.net/b_p/Greek_Chakras.html


reader with the fact that it is an intepreation from Plato’s text that it could be similar to the system of chakras. Jowett’s intepretation of any eastern influences in Plato and Greek philosophy is that they ”reacted upon the East, and a Greek element of thought and language overlaid and partly reduced to order the chaos of Orientalism.”6 So when Plato describes the heart, which tied veins and the fountain of blood that compete up through all the limbs, put there with powered instead of a guard with reference to palpitations as a warning of danger or too strong passion so do I think as Jawott and which also Freud has expressed that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I really think that Plato simply tries to describe and understand the body's functions and in this context the mysterious heart and no other mysteries:

The heart, the knot of the veins and the fountain of the blood which races through all the limbs, was set in the place of guard, that when the might of passion was roused by reason making proclamation of any wrong assailing them from without or being perpetrated by the desires within, quickly the whole power of feeling in the body, perceiving these commands and threats, might obey and follow through every turn and alley, and thus allow the principle of the best to have the command in all of them.7

The choice of the heart ideogram as a representation of our inner sense independent of any particular language, or culture has just started. I would like to develop my research further for meaning through pictorial resemblance linked to Platons dialogues. Analyze of the brief result My impression of what I have read is that Plato was a poet and a great storyteller. I defend myself to the texts that can be interpreted to be all to moral, but I enjoy the parts that are so poetically described. The text of the law contains the most heart-expressions which may seem strange but I think I discern a desire of Plato to see the big picture and not really focus only on the body or only on that which is translated to the soul, but perhaps today could be translated to the internal self-reflection. Here is an example of motivation expressed thorough the heart ideogram ”the people no longer fought heartily for their masters.;”.8 And in Cratylus Hermogenes expresses ”With all my heart; for am very curious to hear the rest of the enquiry about names”.9 Another way of using the heart metaphore is by expression that someone know something without support from external stimulis, ”Some would have them learn by heart entire poets; others prefer extracts”.10 Emotions are expressed through the heart as in this expression by Athenian ”his heart is glad within him…”11 Plato mention the quarrel between philosophy and poetry concerning that respective claims the truth. Plato's argument for philosophy in front of poetry is ontological as well as moral according to Kate Larson.12 Mainly, these are the difference between philosophy sense-driven look at the world and what Plato sees as poetry's irrational founded but oh so inspiring chanting of it. Larson as well as my self find Plato’s dialogues as contradictory as these large extensive use of myths to approach the philosophical insights they want to communicate. Plato's philosophy of how the mind is dependent on the myth of giving us knowledge of

6 Jowett, ’Introduction and Analysis’, p. 2. 7 Ibid., p. 85. 8 Plato, Laws, p. 33 9 Ibid., Cratylus, p. 52. 10 Ibid., Laws, p. 62. 11 Ibid., p. 163. 12 Kate Larson, “Det uråldriga grälet mellan poesi och filosofi” Ikaros 3-‐4. 2013.


reality. Throughout history, these two roads remained more or less open to the inquiring mind.13 Known is that nature perceived as a work of art and the human work of art as a microcosm. … form in the mind's eye an image…14 There are two paths as I see it, to conclude that as far as possible equate the non-measurable values with the obvious. Beyond words - a definition of words for a subject that speaks to our minds can be as difficult as to define love. One must use own experience, which also must have become aware, embodied, and defined for the concepts and values. Then one must ensure that the concepts are understandable, common and shared with all concerned. It must be done by the performers, aesthetes themselves. That is the well-versed practitioners with well-founded experience that is not based only on an intellectual plane. The realization may have come as a sensation via sensory impressions and the symbolic language that expresses aesthetic communication. You can then, together with terminologists, analyze and identify the concepts. To communicate any means creating understanding and action-readiness of someone else. Or it starts from developed logical methods of interpretation actually aspire to the greatest possible extent equating the non-measurable values with the obvious by opera-tionalisations. Plato's discussion of knowledge has been summarized by Russel as 1) Knowledge is perception; 2) Man is the measure of all; 3) Everything is in constant change. A remarkable experience that I as a drama teacher who always have claimed poetry’s amazing impact to understand our everyday life would experience evidence of this by Plato's ancient texts.

13 Ibid. 14 Ibid., Phaedo The Last Hours of Socrates. p. 35.


Sources Larson, Kate, “Det uråldriga grälet mellan poesi och filosofi” Ikaros 3-‐4. 2013. Plato, Phaedo The Last Hours of Socrates, Translator: Benjamin Jowett, [EBook # 1658], Prod. Sue Asscher. 2008.The text was retrieved: 06/12/2015 www.gutenberg.org/files/1658/1658.txt Plato, Laws, Translator: Benjamin Jowett, [EBook # 1750], Prod. Sue Asscher. 2008. The text was retrieved: 06/12/2015 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1750 Plato, Timaeus, Translator: Benjamin Jowett, [EBook # 1497], Prod. Sue Asscher. 2008. The text was retrieved: 06/12/2015 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1572 Plato, The Republic, Translator: Benjamin Jowett, 2008 [EBook # 1497], Prod. Sue Asscher. The text was retrieved: 06/12/2015 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1497 Other texts by Plato, the texts translated by Benjamin Jowett and available on www.gutenberg.org Russel, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy, 1967. http://plato-dialogues.org/works.htm

Attachment no. 1 Alcibiades I For the demus of the great-hearted Erechteus is of a fair countenance, but you should see him naked; wherefore observe the caution which I give you. (p. 41) Alcibiades II (an imitator of Plato according to the translator) None heart expressions. Cratylus (3 times) HERMOGENES: With all my heart; for am very curious to hear the rest of the enquiry about names. (p. 52) SOCRATES: That is a tremendous class of names which you are disinterring; still, as I have put on the lion's skin, I must not be faint of heart; and I suppose that I must consider the meaning of wisdom (phronesis) and understanding (sunesis), and judgment (gnome), and knowledge (episteme), and all those other charming words, as you call them? (p. 64) SOCRATES: And at what point ought he to lose heart and give up the enquiry? (p. 72) Euthydemus (4 times) Euthydemus was proceeding to give the youth a third fall; but I knew that he was in deep water, and therefore, as I wanted to give him a respite lest he should be disheartened, I said to him consolingly: You must not be surprised, Cleinias, at the singularity of their mode of speech… (p. 13) For, as I was saying at first, the improvement of this young man in virtue and wisdom is a matter which we have very much at heart. (p. 18) I will go on therefore where I left off, as well as I can, in the hope that I may touch their hearts and move them to pity, and that when they see me deeply serious and interested, they also may be serious. (p. 24)


Is that your difficulty? I said. For I was beginning to imitate their skill, on which my heart was set. (p. 37) Ion (1 time) ION: That proof strikes home to me, Socrates. For I must frankly confess that at the tale of pity my eyes are filled with tears, and when I speak of horrors, my hair stands on end and my heart throbs. (p. 8) Laches (1 time) SOCRATES: The principle of endurance. We too must endure and persevere in the enquiry, and then courage will not laugh at our faint-heartedness in searching for courage; which after all may, very likely, be endurance. (p. 15) Laws (31 times) Thus they will become softer and more impressible; and when a man's heart is warm within him, he will be more ready to charm himself and others with song. (p. 26) Hatred and spoliation took the place of friendship; the people no longer fought heartily for their masters; the rulers, finding their myriads useless on the field of battle … (p. 33) Even a little accomplished in the way of gaining the hearts of men is of great value. (p. 37) And yet legislation has a poetical or rhetorical element, and must find words which will wing their way to the hearts of men. (p. 43) Now a violent external commotion tends to calm the violent internal one; it quiets the palpitation of the heart, giving to the children sleep, and bringing back the Bacchantes to their right minds by the help of dances and acceptable sacrifices. (p. 58) Some would have them learn by heart entire poets; others prefer extracts. (p. 62) I have observed this ignorance among my countrymen--they are like pigs--and I am heartily ashamed both on my own behalf and on that of all the Hellenes. (p. 64) He cannot leave his old enemies, the Sophists, in possession of the field; and therefore he proposes that youth shall learn by heart, instead of the compositions of poets or prose writers, his own inspired work on laws. (p. 77) But seeing that we are legislating for men and not for Gods, there is no uncharitableness in apprehending that some one of our citizens may have a heart, like the seed which has touched the ox's horn, so hard as to be impenetrable to the law. (p. 80) Laws are made to instruct the good, and in the hope that there may be no need of them; also to control the bad, whose hardness of heart will not be hindered from crime. (p. 87) O Cleinias, in my judgment the older lawgivers were too soft-hearted, and wanting in insight into human affairs. (p. 97) The good man will offer moderate gifts to the Gods; his land or hearth cannot be offered, because they are already consecrated to all Gods. (p. 107) ATHENIAN: Excellent, O Lacedaemonian Stranger. But how ought we to define courage? Is it to be regarded only as a combat against fears and pains, or also against desires and pleasures, and against flatteries; which exercise such a tremendous power, that they make the hearts even of respectable citizens to melt like wax? (p. 136)


ATHENIAN: First will enter in their natural order the sacred choir composed of children, which is to sing lustily the heaven-taught lay to the whole city. Next will follow the choir of young men under the age of thirty, who will call upon the God Paean to testify to the truth of their words, and will pray him to be gracious to the youth and to turn their hearts. (p. 158) ATHENIAN: Every man has a more than natural elevation; his heart is within him, and he will say anything and will be restrained by nobody at such a time; he fancies that he is able to rule over himself and all mankind. (p. 163) There is truth in these objections, and therefore every one should take to heart what I am going to say. (p. 211) The service to whom this is committed may be called the secret police or wardens of the country; the name does not much signify, but every one who has the safety of the state at heart will use his utmost diligence in this service. (p. 219) ATHENIAN: The affection both of the Bacchantes and of the children is an emotion of fear, which springs out of an evil habit of the soul. And when some one applies external agitation to affections of this sort, the motion coming from without gets the better of the terrible and violent internal one, and produces a peace and calm in the soul, and quiets the restless palpitation of the heart, which is a thing much to be desired, sending the children to sleep, and making the Bacchantes, although they remain awake, to dance to the pipe with the help of the Gods to whom they offer acceptable sacrifices, and producing in them a sound mind, which takes the place of their frenzy. And, to express what I mean in a word, there is a good deal to be said in favour of this treatment. (p. 235) 'Telemachus, some things thou wilt thyself find in thy heart, but other things God will suggest; for I deem that thou wast not born or brought up without the will of the Gods.' (p. 244) ATHENIAN: … learning them, so as to get by heart entire poets; while others select choice passages and long speeches, and make compendiums of them, saying that these ought to be committed to memory, ... (p. 248) ATHENIAN: Enough of wrestling; we will now proceed to speak of other movements of the body. Such motion may be in general called dancing, and is of two kinds: one of nobler figures, imitating the honourable, the other of the more ignoble figures, imitating the mean; and of both these there are two further subdivisions. Of the serious, one kind is of those engaged in war and vehement action, and is the exercise of a noble person and a manly heart; the other exhibits a temperate soul in the enjoyment of prosperity and modest pleasures, and may be truly called and is the dance of peace. (p. 251) I was thinking of the rebelliousness of the human heart when I said that the permanent establishment of these things is very difficult. (p. 265) … there is no uncharitableness in apprehending that some one of our citizens may be like a seed which has touched the ox's horn, having a heart so hard that it cannot be softened any more than those seeds can be softened by fire. (p. 272) ATHENIAN: … he would burst into a hearty laugh--he would say what most of those who are called doctors always have at their tongue's end: Foolish fellow, he would say, you are not healing the sick man, but you are educating him; and he does not want to be made a doctor, but to get well. (p. 274) … and, for the sake of the omen, let him be called so, that he may be the continuer of their family, the keeper of their hearth, and the minister of their sacred rites with better fortune than his father had; (p. 288) Now the respect shall be, that the freedman go three times in the month to the hearth of the person who freed him, and offer to do whatever he ought, so far as he can; and he shall agree to make such a marriage as his former master approves. (p.312)


… who are sitting at his hearth, if only he knows how to show true service to them. (p. 322) … and that if a parent is honoured by them, and in the gladness of his heart earnestly entreats the Gods in his prayers to do them good, he is not equally heard, and that they do not minister to his request? (p. 322) … the heart of the God rejoices…. (p. 322) … through the lightheartedness of youth or the like, (p. 323) Now the land and the hearth of the house of all men is sacred to all Gods; (p. 335) Lesser Hippias (1 time) … in the innocence of his heart… (p. 13) Lysis (2 times) When the heart is failing and despair is setting in … (p. 4.) I am one who from my childhood upward have set my heart upon a certain thing… (p. 14) Menexenus (2 times) … and they lost heart and came to misfortune, … (p. 11) But, if the dead have any knowledge of the living, they will displease us most by making themselves miserable and by taking their misfortunes too much to heart, and they will please us best if they bear their loss lightly and temperately. (p. 14) Meno (1 time) MENO: Well; and why are you so slow of heart to believe that knowledge is virtue? (p. 34) Phaedrus (6 times) … learned by heart … (p. 23) … and make a show of them openly in the pride of his heart;- … (p. 25) … he is to be the delight of the lover's heart … (p. 30) … or they may have been unfortunate in their earthly lot, and, having had their hearts turned to unrighteousness through some corrupting influence, … (p.35, 36) If, on the other hand, they leave philosophy and lead the lower life of ambition, then probably, after wine or in some other careless hour, the two wanton animals take the two souls when off their guard and bring them together, and they accomplish that desire of their hearts which to the many is bliss; and this having once enjoyed they continue to enjoy, yet rarely because they have not the approval of the whole soul. (p. 40) …. without any serious purpose, steal away the hearts of his hearers … (p. 45) Philebus (2 times) Such is a brief outline of the history of our moral ideas. We have to distinguish, first of all, the manner in which they have grown up in the world from the manner in which they have been communicated to each of us. We may represent them to ourselves as flowing out of the boundless ocean of language and thought in


little rills, which convey them to the heart and brain of each individual. (p. 20) Once more: turning from theory to practice we feel the importance of retaining the received distinctions of morality. Words such as truth, justice, honesty, virtue, love, have a simple meaning; they have become sacred to us,--'the word of God' written on the human heart: to no other words can the same associations be attached. We cannot explain them adequately on principles of utility; in attempting to do so we rob them of their true character. We give them a meaning often paradoxical and distorted, and generally weaker than their signification in common language. And as words influence men's thoughts, we fear that the hold of morality may also be weakened, and the sense of duty impaired, if virtue and vice are explained only as the qualities which do or do not contribute to the pleasure of the world. (p. 25) Protagoras (3 times) They are Sophists--he is not at home; and instantly gave the door a hearty bang with both his hands. (p. 13) which he is required to learn by heart, in order that he may imitate or emulate them and desire to become like them. (p. 20) … and do now heartily applaud and love your philosophical spirit … (p. 28) Sophist (5 times) STRANGER: And may there not be supposed to be an imitative art of reasoning? Is it not possible to enchant the hearts of young men by words poured through their ears, when they are still at a distance from the truth of facts, by exhibiting to them fictitious arguments, and making them think that they are true, and that the speaker is the wisest of men in all things? (p. 52) STRANGER: Shall we then be so faint-hearted as to give him up? (p. 59) STRANGER: You heard me say what I have always felt and still feel—that I have no heart for this argument? (p. 59) THEAETETUS: There is no reason for you to fear that I shall impute any impropriety to you, if you attempt this refutation and proof; take heart, therefore, and proceed. (p. 59) Such a faint heart, as the proverb says, will never take a city: (p. 80, Stranger) Symphosium (5 times) … is but a fainthearted warrior … (p. 17) Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great … (p. 26) Let us adduce a similar proof of the tenderness of Love; for he walks not upon the earth, nor yet upon the skulls of men, which are not so very soft, but in the hearts and souls of both gods and men, which are of all things the softest: in them he walks and dwells and makes his home. (p. 29) For my heart leaps within me more than that of any Corybantian reveller, and my eyes rain tears when I hear them. (p. 41) For I have been bitten by a more than viper's tooth; I have known in my soul, or in my heart, or in some other part, that worst of pangs, more violent in ingenuous youth than any serpent's tooth, the pang of philosophy, which will make a man say or do anything. (p. 42) The Republic, starts at page 131 (6 times) For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. (p. 160)


'O heavens! with my eyes verily I behold a dear friend of mine chased round and round the city, and my heart is sorrowful.' (p. 182) 'O heavy with wine, who hast the eyes of a dog and the heart of a stag, (p. 183) 'He smote his breast, and thus reproached his heart, Endure, my heart; far worse hast thou endured!' (p. 184) I fear that I must have been talking darkly, like the tragedians. I only mean that some men are changed by persuasion and that others forget; argument steals away the hearts of one class, and time of the other; and this I call theft. (p. 205)

The republic in Greec with comparation of the word ’heart’ γλυκειά η ελπίδα του ακλουθά συντρόφισσα στα γερατειά του, που θεραπεύει την καρδιά και κυβερνάει τα λογικά του ανθρώπου του αστάτου. (p. 11) sweet hope of akloutha comrade in his old age, healing heart and governs the logical the man of capricious. θα τρέφωνται µε άλευρα κριθής και σίτου, από τα οποία θα ζυµώνουν και θα πλάθουν της καρδιάς των ψωµιά και πήττες· They will trefontai with flour and barley wheat, from which they will knead and mold the heart of and unleavened bread; (p. 43) Κάθε καρδιά τραγουδά ένα τραγούδι, ελλιπές, µέχρι µια άλλη καρδιά ψιθυρίζει πίσω. Όσοι επιθυµούν να τραγουδήσουν πάντα να βρείτε ένα τραγούδι. Με το πάτηµα ενός εραστή, ο καθένας γίνεται ποιητής. Káthe kardiá tragoudá éna tragoúdi , ellipés , méchri mia álli̱ kardiá psithyrízei píso̱ . Ósoi epithymoún na tragoudí̱soun pánta na vreíte éna tragoúdi . Me to páti̱ma enós erastí̱ , o kathénas gínetai poii̱tí̱s . καρδιάkardiá Översättningar av καρδιά substantiv heart καρδιά, θάρρος ticker καρδιά, κροτών, τηλετυπώτης, κροτούν ελαφρώς core πυρήνας, πυρήν, καρδιά, κέντρο, κουκούτσι

Theaetetus, starts at page 48 (9 times) SOCRATES: Then this is the child, however he may turn out, which you and I have with difficulty brought into the world. And now that he is born, we must run round the hearth with him, (p. 65)


SOCRATES: ... and when others are being praised and glorified, in the simplicity of his heart he cannot help going into fits of laughter, so that he seems to be a downright idiot. (p. 76) SOCRATES: And the origin of truth and error is as follows:--When the wax in the soul of any one is deep and abundant, and smooth and perfectly tempered, then the impressions which pass through the senses and sink into the heart of the soul, as Homer says in a parable, meaning to indicate the likeness of the soul to wax (Kerh Kerhos); these, I say, being pure and clear, and having a sufficient depth of wax, are also lasting, and minds, such as these, easily learn and easily retain, and are not liable to confusion, but have true thoughts, for they have plenty of room, and having clear impressions of things, as we term them, quickly distribute them into their proper places on the block. And such men are called wise. Do you agree? THEAETETUS: Entirely. SOCRATES: But when the heart of any one is shaggy--a quality which the all-wise poet commends, or muddy and of impure wax, or very soft, or very hard, then there is a corresponding defect in the mind … (p. 94) SOCRATES: Because I am disheartened at my own stupidity and tiresome garrulity; for what other term will describe the habit of a man who is always arguing on all sides of a question; whose dulness cannot be convinced, and who will never leave off? THEAETETUS: But what puts you out of heart? SOCRATES: I am not only out of heart, but in positive despair; for I do not know what to answer if any one were to ask me:--O Socrates, have you indeed discovered that false opinion arises neither in the comparison of perceptions with one another nor yet in thought, but in union of thought and perception? (p. 95) SOCRATES: Then, once more, what shall we say that knowledge is?--for we are not going to lose heart as yet. THEAETETUS: Certainly, I shall not lose heart, if you do not. (p. 100) Timaeus, starts at page 56 (5 times) These too, like most of the other affections, appear to be caused by certain contractions and dilations, but they have besides more of roughness and smoothness than is found in other affections; for whenever earthy particles enter into the small veins which are the testing instruments of the tongue, reaching to the heart, and fall upon the moist, delicate portions of flesh--when, as they are dissolved, they contract and dry up the little veins, they are astringent if they are rougher, but if not so rough, then only harsh. (p. 83) The heart, the knot of the veins and the fountain of the blood which races through all the limbs, was set in the place of guard, that when the might of passion was roused by reason making proclamation of any wrong assailing them from without or being perpetrated by the desires within, quickly the whole power of feeling in the body, perceiving these commands and threats, might obey and follow through every turn and alley, and thus allow the principle of the best to have the command in all of them. But the gods, foreknowing that the palpitation of the heart in the expectation of danger and the swelling and excitement of passion was caused by fire, formed and implanted as a supporter to the heart the lung, which was, in the first place, soft and bloodless, and also had within hollows like the pores of a sponge, in order that by receiving the breath and the drink, it might give coolness and the power of respiration and alleviate the heat. Wherefore they cut the air-channels leading to the lung, and placed the lung about the heart as a soft spring, that, when passion was rife within, the heart, beating against a yielding body, might be cooled and suffer less, and might thus become more ready to join with passion in the service of reason. (p. 85)

plato on heart in dialogues

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