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PLATO: (427-347BC) The nature of man is seen in the metaphysical

dichotomy between the body and soul.

The body is material; it cannot live and moveapart from the soul; it is mutable and destructible.

The soul is immaterial; it can exist apart fromthe body; it is immutable and indestructible.

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Plato contends that the soul is a

substance because it exists and can exist

independently of the body; nevertheless,

it is temporarily incarcerated in the body.

What leads Plato to say this is his

conviction that the soul existed prior to thebody.

Plato concludes that man is a soul using

a body.

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Plato believes that virtue is knowledge

and the source of knowledge is virtue.

It is not abstract but concrete

knowledge, not theoretical but practical

knowledge.

Man must know what is good so that hemay do so.

Plato elaborated this by illustrating the

four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage or

fortitude, temperance and justice.

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Man is a knower and a possessor

of an immortality of the soul. Plato believes that the body dies

and disintegrates.

The soul continuous to live foreverafter the death of the body.

The soul migrates to the realm of

the pure forms.

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1. Rational part located in the head,specifically in the brain. This enablesman to think, to reflect and to draw

conclusions and to analyze.2. Appetitive part located in the

abdomen. It drives man to

experience thirst, hunger, and otherphysical wants.

3. Spiritual part located in the chest.It makes man assert and experience

abomination and anger.

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Plato believed that the rational part of

the soul is the most important and thehighest.

For Plato, is it the rational part that

specifically distinguishes man from the

brutes. Man can control his appetite and self-

assertion of spirit through Reason.

For example, when a person is hungryand yet, he does not eat the available

food because he knows or doubts that

it has poison.

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Plato contends that there is something in

the mind of the person that leads him to

crave for food and another thing that prohibitshim from eating the poisoned food.

The principle which drives the person to eat

the food is what he calls Appetite while the

principle which forbids the person to eat the

available food because it is poisoned is

Reason.

Reason for Plato controls both Spirit andAppetite.

When this happens man will have a well-

balanced personality.

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Man is a rational animal.

Unlike his master Plato, Aristotlemaintains that there is no dichotomy

between mans body and mans soul.Body and soul are in a state of unity.

In this unity, the soul acts as the

perfect or full realization of the bodywhile the body is a materialentitywhich has a potentiality for life.

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Per se, the body has no life.

It can only possess life when it is united

with the soul.

In this regard, Aristotle speaks of man as

a single essence composed of body

and soul(as mans matter and formprinciples).

Mans body matter and mans soul

form.

That is why he speaks of soul as thebodys perfect realization because form

for him is the perfect realization of

matter.

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Man as a rational animal He is not the center of the universe.

The focal point is the cosmos.

Man is only a part of the universe.

Aristotle believed that mans actions

and endeavors are motivated by thepossession of the good.

There are many goods. For Aristotle, the very goal of human life

is happiness.

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Kinds of soul1. Vegetative soul plants possess this. It

feeds itself, it grows and it reproduces.2. Sensitive soul exists in animals. It

feeds itself, it grows, it reproduces and ithas feelings (particularly pain andpleasure because it has a nervous system).

3. Rational soul exists only in man. It

assumes the functions of the vegetativeand sensitive souls. It is capable ofthinking, reasoning, and willing. Man ishigher than the brutes, animals and

plants. Man is capable of thinking andud in .

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