Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Soul, Body and Mind - Coggle Diagram

- - - - charioteer represents the logical aspect of the soul : reason
      - the white winged horse represent the noble aspect of the soul :spirit
      - the black winged horse represents the passionate aspect of the soul : appetite
      - reason controls and maintains the balance needed between spirit and appetite. this balance is what leads attainment of true knowledge
  - - - prisoners are chained to the floor of the cave and can only see shadows on the walls
        
        The Prisoners
        
        Ordinary people in our world who have not yet discovered true knowledge
        
        Represent all individuals as souls trapped in the sensory world
        
        been deceived by what they see into believing - there is nothing beyond the shadows which for them is the full extent of their reality
        
        The Cave
        
        The empirical world that we see and hear around us, shadows seem more real than the truth
        
        the cave shows that believers of empirical evidence are trapped in a 'cave' of misunderstanding
        
        also represents the human body that imprisons the soul, the body provides us with illusions from our sense. The illusions seem more real than reality, body prevents the soul from seeking true knowledge
        
        The Chains
        
        the senses that restrict the way we experience things
        
        represents anything that prevents an individual from having the freedom to learn
        
        The Shadows
        
        represents the knowledge we gain from others and accepts as truths
        
        represents the illusion created by our senses
        
        if you believe what you see, you are merely seeing a shadow of truth
        
        The Escapee
        
        philosopher who has gained knowledge
        
        The philosopher who seeks knowledge outside the cave
      - Strengths of the allegory
        
        helps us understand that there are imperfections in the world
        
        encourages us not to accept things at face value
        
        analogy of the cave is used to illustrate the world of forms, Brian Davies says the explanation of the Form's must tell us there is more to reality then we think
      - Weakness of the allegory
        
        not everyone will see the form of good the same way, it is subjective, not universal like Plato suggests
        
        Richard Dawkins "ideas are just passed down from one person to another person" - ideas will die at one point
        
        it is impossible to prove
        
        Plato "fails to illustrate that attractiveness of the physical world; the scene inside the gloomy cave hardly represents the delight of the sense" (Mel Thompson). This means that Plato's analogy of the cave is nothing like the world we live in, so we can't relate to it, or understand it the way Plato wants us to.
  - - - there is no such thing as perfect goodness or justice
      - perfect goodness will mean different things to different people
      - -there cannot be a perfect form of goodness - his argument of the soul fails
      - -Plato's point cannot be applied to maths
        
        there is no way we could have gotten our idea of a perfect circle from experience
      - Hume argues, that we can gain the concept of perfection by merely observing imperfect things and imagining what they would look like without imperfection
      - Even though we never experience perfection our reason is still capable of figuring it out as a concept
  - - - major influence on Christian though - immortality of the soul
      - later ideas of reincarnation are similar to eastern religions notions of rebirth
      - helps explain the individuality of people (links with Freud's id, ego and superego)
    - - problems arise because all 3 elements are seen as necessary
      - appetitive and spirited elements seem to be connected to bodily life
- - - - Rational thought is just caused by brain processes, we don't need the idea of the soul