Plato’s concept of the body and the soul.

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Plato’s concept of the body and the soul Plato’s concept of the body and the soul is a dualistic theory.  He saw our existence in terms of two levels.  These were the body and the soul.  He believed that the body existed only in the physical world (World of Appearances) and that it is of this world meaning it is mortal.  It is only interested in sense pleasures such as eating and sleeping and occasionally, the demands of the body take over a person and cloud their minds with the things of this world.  Here, Plato is basically linking it with his allegory by saying at this stage we cannot see beyond the shadows.  The soul however, is immortal and unchanging.  He believed that the soul inhabits the metaphysical world (World of Forms).  It is immortal and inhabits a host until it dies,
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at which point it is released.  It is also linked to thoughts and to the mind both of which Plato believed to be metaphysical.  He understood that the soul had a ‘thirst’ for intellectual pursuits.  He used the analogy of a charioteer to portray his belief that the soul (psyche) worked in harmony with the mind and body.  He said that the charioteer was the soul and the two horses were the mind and the body.  The job of the charioteer (the soul) is to get the two horses (mind and body) to work in harmony.  Plato argued that the ...

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