Plato's Tripartite
Plato created the tripartite theory of the soul to represent what helps people make a decision, and the nature of a person’s soul. Plato’s tripartite of the soul is the appetite, the spirit, and the mind (1). The appetite is the part of us that seeks pleasures, comforts, and physical satisfactions. The spirit part is what gets angry when we hear something that we feel is wrong. Lastly, the mind is our consciousness or awareness. Parallel to Plato’s tripartite is Aristotle’s tripartite which are reason, virtue, and practical wisdom. Virtue is parallel Plato’s appetite that people can’t have the same appetites just like they don’t have the same virtues. Everyone and their beliefs are different. Although the ideas are parallels the ideas do differ. It can be seen by Plato’s title “the tripartite theory of the soul” shows that he thinks things can be done more internally while Aristotle believes that taking action gets things done. Both ideas influenced the founding fathers in coming up with their own tripartite system of government.
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They both influenced the founding fathers by giving them the idea to create a government and constitution that is mixed, for all people.
In his book Aristotle said, “There are three elements in each constitution in respect of which every serious lawgiver must look for what is advantageous to it; of these are well arranged, the constitution is bound to be well arranged, and the differences in constitutions are bound to correspond to the differences between each of these elements. The three are, first, the deliberative, which discusses everything of common importance; second, the official; and third the judicial element." By saying this he points out that there differences because of the mixture that they had. The soul theory also contributes to this because it is three different ideas that can be mixed to create
one.
Aristotle stated in the quote in the previous paragraph that there should be the deliberative, the official, and the judicial elements of the constitution. These directly correspond to the tripartite we have in the United States, which are the executive, legislative, and executive branches of government. Both theories are included in these branches as well. Each branch has to use virtue, reason, and wisdom to make decisions that will allow our country to run the best. The branches have to use both ideas of actions to get things done and inward ideas to get things done. The branches have to work together and actually create laws to keep the country going, but they also have to use their minds to come up with ideas and think about what is going to be best for the country.
They both influenced the founding fathers by giving them the idea to create a government and constitution that is mixed, for all people.
In his book Aristotle said, “There are three elements in each constitution in respect of which every serious lawgiver must look for what is advantageous to it; of these are well arranged, the constitution is bound to be well arranged, and the differences in constitutions are bound to correspond to the differences between each of these elements. The three are, first, the deliberative, which discusses everything of common importance; second, the official; and third the judicial element." By saying this he points out that there differences because of the mixture that they had. The soul theory also contributes to this because it is three different ideas that can be mixed to create
one.
Aristotle stated in the quote in the previous paragraph that there should be the deliberative, the official, and the judicial elements of the constitution. These directly correspond to the tripartite we have in the United States, which are the executive, legislative, and executive branches of government. Both theories are included in these branches as well. Each branch has to use virtue, reason, and wisdom to make decisions that will allow our country to run the best. The branches have to use both ideas of actions to get things done and inward ideas to get things done. The branches have to work together and actually create laws to keep the country going, but they also have to use their minds to come up with ideas and think about what is going to be best for the country.