Editing Soul (section)

===Socrates and Plato<!--Linked from 'Emanationism'-->===
{{Main|Plato's tripartite theory of soul}}
[[File:Uc2.ark 13960 t8rb76g72-seq 443 (cropped Plato).jpg|thumb|Likeness of [[Plato]] after an [[engraved gem]]. The Psyche-wings fastened to his temples allude to his doctrine of the immortality of the soul.<ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=Charles William |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofengrav00king/page/236/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Handbook of Engraved Gems |publisher=George Bell and Sons |year=1885 |edition=2nd |location=London |pages=236}}</ref>]]

Drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the [[essence]] of a person, being that which decides how humans behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being. Plato said that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn ([[metempsychosis]]) in subsequent bodies; however, Aristotle believed that only one part of the soul was immortal, namely the intellect ({{tlit|grc|logos}}). The Platonic soul consists of three parts, which are located in different regions of the body:<ref>{{cite book|title = The Gift of Logos: Essays in Continental Philosophy|last = Jones|first = David|publisher = Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year = 2009|isbn = 978-1-4438-1825-4|pages = 33–35|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1RgaBwAAQBAJ&q=plato+soul+logos&pg=PA34|access-date = 2016-02-23}}{{bsn|date=April 2025}}</ref><ref>See Karfik 2005. Karfik, Filip. 2005. "What the Mortal Parts of the Soul Really Are". ''Rhizai: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science'' 2: 197–217.</ref>
# The ''[[Logos#Ancient Greek philosophy|logos]]'', or ''logistikon'' (mind, [[nous]], or [[reason]]), which is located in the head and is related to reason.
# The ''[[Thumos|thymos]]'', or ''thumetikon'' ([[emotion]], spiritedness, or masculine), which is located near the chest region and is related to anger.
# The ''[[Eros (concept)|eros]]'', or ''epithumetikon'' (appetitive, [[motivation|desire]], or feminine), which is located in the stomach and is related to one's desires.

Plato compares the three parts of the soul or psyche to a societal [[Plato's tripartite theory of soul|caste system]]. According to Plato's theory, the three-part soul is essentially the same thing as a state's class system because, to function well, each part must contribute so that the whole functions well. ''Logos'' keeps the other functions of the soul regulated.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Welton |first=William A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vbtbQk_A0YoC |title=Plato's Forms: Varieties of Interpretation |date=2002 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-0514-6 |language=en}}</ref>

The soul is at the heart of Plato's philosophy. Francis Cornford described the twin pillars of Platonism as being the [[theory of forms]] on the one hand, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul on the other.<ref>[[F. M. Cornford|Cornford, Francis]] (1941). ''The Republic of Plato''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. xxv.</ref> Plato was the first person in the history of philosophy to believe that the soul was both the source of life and the mind. In Plato's dialogues, the soul plays many disparate roles.<ref>Campbell, Douglas (2021). "Self-Motion and Cognition: Plato's Theory of the Soul". ''The Southern Journal of Philosophy''. '''59''': 523–544</ref> Among other things, Plato believes that the soul is what gives life to the body (which was articulated most of all in the ''Laws'' and ''Phaedrus'') in terms of self-motion: to be alive is to be capable of moving yourself, and the soul is a self-mover. He also thinks that the soul is the bearer of moral properties (i.e., when one is virtuous, it is their soul that is virtuous as opposed to, say, their body). The soul is also the mind: it is that which thinks in them. This casual oscillation between different roles of the soul in observed many dialogues, including the ''Republic:''<blockquote>Is there any function of the soul that you could not accomplish with anything else, such as taking care of something (''epimeleisthai''), ruling, and deliberating, and other such things? Could we correctly assign these things to anything besides the soul, and say that they are characteristic (''idia'') of it?

No, to nothing else.

What about living? Will we deny that this is a function of the soul?

That absolutely is.<ref>Plato, ''Republic,'' Book 1, 353d.  Translation found in Campbell 2021: 523.[https://philpapers.org/go.pl?aid=CAMSAC-13] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241210021051/https://philpapers.org/go.pl?aid=CAMSAC-13|date=10 December 2024}}</ref></blockquote>The ''Phaedo'' most famously caused problems to scholars who were trying to make sense of this aspect of Plato's theory of the soul, such as  Dorothea Frede and Sarah Broadie.<ref>Frede, Dorothea. 1978. "The Final Proof of the Immortality of the Soul in Plato's Phaedo 102a–107a". ''Phronesis'', 23.1: 27–41.[https://philpapers.org/archive/FRETFP.pdf]</ref><ref>[[Sarah Broadie|Broadie, Sarah]]. 2001. "Soul and Body in Plato and Descartes." Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 101: 295–308.[https://philpapers.org/archive/BROSAB-3.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250131072942/https://philpapers.org/archive/BROSAB-3.pdf|date=31 January 2025}}</ref> 2020s scholarship overturned this accusation by arguing that part of the novelty of Plato's theory of the soul is that it was the first to unite the different features and powers of the soul that became commonplace in later ancient and medieval philosophy.<ref name="Campbell, Douglas 2021" /> For Plato, the soul moves things by means of its thoughts, as one scholar puts it, and accordingly the soul is both a mover (i.e., the principle of life, where life is conceived of as self-motion) and a thinker.<ref name="Campbell, Douglas 2021" />