Does the Soul Exist? - An Exploration of Plato's Philosophy

The philosophy of human nature is often derivative of misanthropy. To be sure, from Plato to Hobbes and even to Rousseau, the narrative of the ordinary human being foolish and ignorant has been thoroughly perpetuated across generations. Regardless, one of the most full and influential accounts on the subject of human nature was indeed from the work of Plato, whose philosophical principles are rooted in rationalism : the epistemological view that regards reason to be the chief source and test of knowledge. Plato believed in an “eternal soul” that originated from an ideal world, namely “The World of Forms”, transcendent to “The World of Substances” where our corporeal forms reside. He suggested that this soul is immortal and is repeatedly reincarnated where knowledge remains in the soul from eternity, but each time the soul is incarnated, its knowledge is forgotten in the shock of birth (thus the theory of anamnesis). Plato believes that the soul is imprisoned within the body and that at the end of life the soul is set free. The goal of the soul is the ideal World of Forms. When the body is overcome, the soul can be fully and truly free by gaining more knowledge of The Forms. He further proposes the analogy of the charioteer : the soul is a chariot being pulled by a white horse (spirit) and a dark horse (appetite) and driven by a charioteer (reason). He argues that human nature has 3 aspects : our reason, our spirit (emotions e.g. pride and courage) and our appetite (bodily and worldly desires) which seek knowledge, reputation and material gain respectively, where each can come to dominate our behaviour. He asserts that our human nature is that we possess the capacity to use our reason to overcome appetite and desire to make rational decisions but when the two fail to submit to reason, we experience mental conflict and irrationality. 

Plato’s allegorical “cave” tale serves to supplement his aforementioned ideas. He likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads to the outside world. These Forms are universals, idealised concepts such as beauty and justice that are separate from, and prior to, beautiful things and just states. Plato argues that true knowledge is to be

found not through our senses, but through contemplation of the Forms. 

Behind the prisoners burns a fire that causes the shadows of the outside world to be projected onto the wall of the cave. These shadows become “reality” for the prisoners because they have never been able to observe the real truth about the universe around them. Plato then supposes one prisoner is granted freedom and when he turns around, unaccustomed to the light is blinded by the sun and cannot make out anything around him. But slowly as he ventures outside the cave his eyes adjust to the light and gradually he can see the reflections of people and objects in water and then later the people and objects themselves. Eventually, he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until he can look upon the sun itself. Naturally with the awareness of a better world, the prisoner returns to share his discovery with the other prisoners and his eyes which have become accustomed to the sunlight, now turn him blind upon reentering the cave and the remaining prisoners infer from the man’s blindness that the journey out of the cave has harmed him and that they should not undertake a similar journey. In the same way, the freed prisoner (the soul after death and indeed the philosopher who contemplates the Forms) who ventures out of the World of Substances (the material world known to us through sensation,) and seeks out the World of Forms, possesses the highest and most fundamental kind of reality and becomes enlightened to a point of no return. So whilst others may engage in just or unjust actions for example, by transcending to the World of Forms,  the soul is able to understand the nature of justice completely. This is also attainable by the philosopher who is able to contemplate The Forms (e.g. justice) itself and as a result also understands the nature of justice completely. 

On principle, Plato’s theory is indeed elitist, in his Theory of Forms he posits that The Primary Form in The World of Forms is Goodness where one can acquire knowledge that allows for certainty in moral matters. Whilst this can be achieved by the soul, his theory of anamnesis means the ordinary human will forget all this knowledge in the shock of birth hence the only people with the absolute certainty of knowing what is “moral” or “immoral” are the people specialised and intellectual enough to contemplate the Forms : philosophers. Hence he suggests such highly specialised philosophical training is necessary to allow for certainty in moral matters. I disagree with this premise entirely as firstly I do not believe there to be a single moral situation where perspective and circumstance do not make the matter entirely subjective meaning certainty on moral matters is not a possibility. I also disagree that specialised philosophical training is determinant for one's ability to state what is morally “good” and what is morally “bad”. Being a philosopher does not make you a perfectly virtuous human being that would perhaps allow this to be achieved to some degree. Indeed Descartes had disturbing views about animals and their supposed incapability of feeling pain. Hume and Kant were famous white supremacists. Hegel disparaged those of African descent. Hence there is clearly no correlation between one’s profession as a philosopher and their ability to know and practise what is “good”. However Plato certainly has a point that the body, being corporeal, is a prison and entirely separate to what distinctly differentiates us from somebody else which in my mind is the way we think, feel, our attitudes to life and our fundamental values and beliefs which are not tangible. They therefore exist as a non tangible “soul” containing our reason, desires (appetite) and emotions (spirit). Further the very fact that no energy in the universe is created or destroyed , only transferred, certainly provides strong proof that post mortem, there is this reincarnation (transfer) of the energy stored within the body which would contain all the qualities that distinctly differentiate us : our reason, our appetite and our spirit which ultimately is the soul itself.