Socrates Vs Plato
Timothy Tran
July 2, 2013
Philosophy 3
Paper # 1
In Republic, Socrates argues that justice is the virtue of the soul. Socrates tells us that justice is desirable because it means health of the soul.
Socrates says that justice is the virtue (excellence) of the soul and acting justly makes you happy. The main goal that Socrates wants to achieve is to explain that justice is good and makes you happy, so there should be a reason for each individual to act justly. In each individual, the “soul” plays an important value with justice. The concept that must be understood is that the “soul’ is not one but actually three parts and they are: desire, spirit and reason. Every individual “the self”, has parts and justice equals harmony of the parts …show more content…
Our desire functions to motivate us to take care of our basic needs. We have a lot of desires and they may be rational or irrational meaning that what we want may sometimes or most times be what we don’t need. For example I am thirsty, so I go to my refrigerator and get a soda. My desire is to drink a soda but because I am simply thirsty, I don’t need a soda and could settle for water or any other liquid substance to fulfill my desire.
Our reason seeks the truth. It judges what is best for the person as a whole and functions as our choice for what is best and motivates us to judge to be good. For example, instead of drinking the soda, I will drink water because soda is bad for you. My reasoning for drinking water stops me from making a bad choice and directs me to make a judgment to be good.
Our spirit holds the capacity for emotions that can be shaped by reason. Our spirit contains emotional responses based on value judgments and it functions to give us motivational force to reason, but can operate independently of reason. Our spirit needs no guidance and direction from reason. For example, I will drink soda anyways because I know it is what I want to drink and it doesn’t matter if it’s bad for me. I really want to drink soda, so I will do it without substituting for a healthier …show more content…
Using my examples of drinking soda given above, I will elaborate on Socrates argument. Our desire to drink soda can be opposed by a judgment of reason by saying that soda is simply bad. This shows that reason and desire are different parts of the soul. Spirit can follow reason but oppose desire by saying that I want soda but instead I can drink water instead and my quench will be fulfilled. Now, spirit and desire are not the same. Spirit and reason are different because I could drink the soda because it’s my favorite type of drink even though my reasoning goes against my drinking something bad for my body. Therefore desire, reason and spirit are not the
July 2, 2013
Philosophy 3
Paper # 1
In Republic, Socrates argues that justice is the virtue of the soul. Socrates tells us that justice is desirable because it means health of the soul.
Socrates says that justice is the virtue (excellence) of the soul and acting justly makes you happy. The main goal that Socrates wants to achieve is to explain that justice is good and makes you happy, so there should be a reason for each individual to act justly. In each individual, the “soul” plays an important value with justice. The concept that must be understood is that the “soul’ is not one but actually three parts and they are: desire, spirit and reason. Every individual “the self”, has parts and justice equals harmony of the parts …show more content…
Our desire functions to motivate us to take care of our basic needs. We have a lot of desires and they may be rational or irrational meaning that what we want may sometimes or most times be what we don’t need. For example I am thirsty, so I go to my refrigerator and get a soda. My desire is to drink a soda but because I am simply thirsty, I don’t need a soda and could settle for water or any other liquid substance to fulfill my desire.
Our reason seeks the truth. It judges what is best for the person as a whole and functions as our choice for what is best and motivates us to judge to be good. For example, instead of drinking the soda, I will drink water because soda is bad for you. My reasoning for drinking water stops me from making a bad choice and directs me to make a judgment to be good.
Our spirit holds the capacity for emotions that can be shaped by reason. Our spirit contains emotional responses based on value judgments and it functions to give us motivational force to reason, but can operate independently of reason. Our spirit needs no guidance and direction from reason. For example, I will drink soda anyways because I know it is what I want to drink and it doesn’t matter if it’s bad for me. I really want to drink soda, so I will do it without substituting for a healthier …show more content…
Using my examples of drinking soda given above, I will elaborate on Socrates argument. Our desire to drink soda can be opposed by a judgment of reason by saying that soda is simply bad. This shows that reason and desire are different parts of the soul. Spirit can follow reason but oppose desire by saying that I want soda but instead I can drink water instead and my quench will be fulfilled. Now, spirit and desire are not the same. Spirit and reason are different because I could drink the soda because it’s my favorite type of drink even though my reasoning goes against my drinking something bad for my body. Therefore desire, reason and spirit are not the