Chapter 12 – Soul, Mind, Body – Plato’s Metaphors of the Sun, the Chariot and the Divided Line

Metaphor of Sun

Sun is the best Illuminating Object in the world. The illumination is Good. Good, as per Plato, is God. Hence Sun is God.

Absolute Good which always illumines like Sun is God. Sun is the nature’s ultimate reality like God.

Illuminations on the world objects will help us to know Good and Bad. Hence Sun helps us to know good from bad.

Eye is a sense organ. It cannot operate on its own. It needs a medium, namely light, to operate. The strongest and best source of light is the Sun. With such a source of light, one can discern objects clearly.

Intellects of the person can distinguish good and bad with such light. Intellects with getting supports from their rationalism and realism in the form of illumination from the sun rays can easily apprehends the dark side of the object which is bad. The dark side of any object which is bad is purely due to clouded and confused shifting opinions of the minds lacking reasons. Such lighting of the objects by the ever radiant rays of sun will help the humans’ intellects to choose the good from the bad.

Good, as per Plato, always shines and illumines and Bad always is shrouded with darkness. Again, Good is Truth and Bad is Untruth.

How does the metaphor of Sun fit into the allegory of cave as portrayed by Plato?

The freed slave, who was accustomed to the pitch darkness and shadowy lights, could not bear the sudden illumination of the sun rays outside on his coming out from the cave. Slowly he became aware that the reality was outside the cave and that all along his taking of all illusory images reflected in the cave wall and the echoes thereon as real were all irrational and unreal. He could realize his besieged ignorance due the darkness of the cave inside. Realization had dawned on him only after seeing the sun light outside. Having realized the truth, the freed slave had become a philosopher. As a philosopher, it was his bounden duty to break the shackles of other prisoners and to free them with all his powers of intellect, arguments and knowledge. As along as there were people to seek the comforts of the cave lives, the process was never ending. There would always be philosophers like Socrates born again and again to save such people. In the process, such philosophers might have to pay a heavy prize of even sacrificing their own lives for the sake of their principles.

The Metaphor of Chariot

Metaphor of Chariot is used by Plato to explain his views of the human soul. Soul is depicted as chariot and Intellect as Charioteer. Chariot is driven by two horses – one white and other black. White horse is right to the chariot and black horse to left. White horse represents rational or moral impulses or the positive side of human nature. Black horse, on the other hand, represents irrational or appetitive impulses or the negative side of human nature. In short, white horse is noble and black horse is ignoble.

Aim of charioteer is to move the chariot towards enlightenment. The charioteer has to control the black horse from drifting and also to direct the white horse towards the chosen path.

The right-hand white horse is upright and cleanly made; he has a lofty neck and an aquiline nose; his color is white, and his eyes dark; he is a lover of honor and modesty and temperance, and the follower of true glory; he needs no touch of the whip, but is guided by word and admonition only.

The other black one is a crooked lumbering animal; he has a short thick neck; he is flat-faced and of a dark color, with grey eyes and the mate of insolence and pride, shag-eared and deaf, hardly yielding to whip and spur.

In short, while white horse is guided by the charioteer's word and by reason and is obedient having no necessity to use the whip, the black horse is not guided by the charioteer’s word and is most disobedient even to the whips.

The chariot lacks power. Half the chariot's energy comes from the white
horse. Lacking this, the chariot cannot ascend to the heavens. The noble white horse
is there, stamping his feet, eager to do the work for which he was bred. The ignoble
black horse is there to block the movements of the chariot to enlightened path.
Chariot, Charioteer, two horses are all winged. Each soul has its own chariot. Only a
few souls succeed by going through great circuits to reach the seats of gods and such
souls become enlightened.

The push and pull of black horses in spite of the help got by white horses force the
souls to lose its wings and such souls are pulled down to earth. These are falls for
such souls from enlightenment.

Such souls are to born again.

Such fallen souls are incarnated into one of nine kinds of person depending upon how
much truth they beheld. In order of decreasing levels of truths in the souls, the souls
are borne again in the following categories:

1.Philosophers
2.Kings and Leaders
3.Politicians and Businessmen
4.Physicians
5.Prophets
6.Poets and Artists
7.Craftsmen and Farmers
8.Demagogues.
9.Tyrants

Metaphor of the Divided Line

Divided Line is to teach basic philosophical views about four stages of cognitions.

There are visible world and invisible or intelligent world.

Visible world has two segments –

1.Opinion or Belief or Imagination or Shadows.
2.Thinking or Conjecture about Physical Things.

Invisible world or Intelligent world has two segments –

1.Reasoning
2.Knowledge or Wisdom.

____________________________________________
A B C D E

Draw a line AE. Cut AE into two unequal parts – say AC and CE. Divide each of AC and CE again in the same proportions.

In this BC = CD and AB : BC : : CD : DE.
If AB = 5 and BC = 10, then CD =10. By the equation, 5 : 10 : : 10 : DE.
Then, DE = 20.

Here AC is Visible World and CE is Invisible World or Intelligent World.
Visible World is Cave Life and Invisible World is Sun Life. While AB is the lowest, DE is the highest or the Forms of Good. While Cave Life is Bad, Sun Life is Good.
In short, AB = Lowest, BC = Lower, CD = Higher and DE = Highest.

There are four types of human knowledge:

Imaginary Knowledge (AB), Real World Knowledge (BC), Scientific, mathematical or Logical Knowledge (CD) and Spiritual Knowledge (DE) in that order of lowest to highest.

One needs to move from the cave life to sun life i.e. from the lowest to highest i.e. from AB to DE. This is possible, only if the human being realizes that mere opinions about shadows of real objects or mere thinking of real objects as such will not lead the souls to reasoning with the illumination of sun light. Such soul should journey further up with the illuminations got by the reasoning to realize the goodness of forms thereon.

Realizations or Enlightenments made possible for the souls by the Sun Light shining outside the darkness of the cave are real salvations for the human beings.

In our next issue, the following three metaphors will be dealt with: Myth of ER, Ring of Gyges and Ship of State.

Chapter 11 – Soul, Mind, Body – Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Plato’s Republic has four important allegories or metaphors to bring forth the Realities and Illusions experienced by all human beings in their pursuit of true knowledge.

They are:
1. The Allegory of the Cave
2. The Allegory of the Sun
3. The Allegory of the Divided Line
4. The Allegory of the Chariot.

Of these four allegories, the Allegory of the Cave is the main concept and the other three are supplementary to the main concept and are even complementary to the main. These four allegories together bring out the fallacy of the human beings in distinguishing and also understanding the real forms from the unreal forms or shadows and also unreal speech or echoes so as to have a real knowledge about all things around. Of these four allegories, the allegory of the divided line is the most obscure and most difficult to fully assimilate and grasp the meanings that Plato wants to convey.

Now, let us deal with the allegory of the cave as expounded by Plato in the Republic Book No. VII. The entire allegory is described as a dialogue between Socrates and Plato’s brother, Glaucon.

Socrates describes the cave in great details. The two pictures published - at first page and here on the left, are the graphic drawings of the descriptions of the cave.
There are people inside the cave. These people are prisoners from their childhood. Their hands and legs are chained and they cannot move. They cannot also move their heads around. Their visions are restricted to see only the wall of the cave in front of them. Above and behind them, there is a huge fire blazing at a distance.

There is a low wall behind the prisoners. There is a walkway between the fire and the low wall. Players carry all sorts of objects – vessels, statues, figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials like a puppet show. Some of them are talking, others silent.
Hence the prisoners are only exposed to the shadows of the objects held by the players being projected on the wall of the cave in front of them and also to the echoes of the talking objects passing through the walkway.

The prisoners in chains decipher the shadows and consider these shadows to be part of the real world. They start naming each and every object. The intellects of the prisoners are being judged by their ability to know these objects from their shadows and their echoes. The idea of the world for prisoners is limited within the boundaries of the cave and they have become pseudo intellectuals due to their wrong understanding of the world based on false forms of shadows and false sound of echoes.

Then, is there any salvation for the prisoners? – Socrates himself poses this question to Glaucon and answers as well.

Socrates answers thus: Suppose a prisoner manages to escape from the cave and goes outside the cave to see the world at large. As this prisoner also is confined to the four walls of the cave with dim light previously, the sudden bright rays of the sun make him his gaze away from it. Slowly, he gets accustomed to the existence of the new world, which exposes the fallacy of that inside the cave. He now discovers the reality and becomes intellectual. He experiences the beauty of Mother Nature and a divine experience of the newly found mystical world. The prisoner has now become a philosopher.

‘Is it not the duty of the prisoner turned philosopher to awaken his other prisoners to the reality?’ – Socrates asks Glaucon thus.

Socrates then proceeds to explain the situations.

The awakened prisoner comes back to the cave and tries to persuade his companions that outside there are a more real world and what all has been seen by them are mere shadows of the real objects. He tries to point out the deep rooted ignorance of the fellow prisoners who are trapped with their own confinement of pseudo intellectualism. But the prisoners try to resist enlightenment and condemn him for the moral misconduct and loss of ethical values.

These values, which are not governed by tautologies of nature but the fallacy of shadows casted on the wall, are considered to be the truth by the prisoners of the cave.

Everything that goes beyond these values tends to lie in the domain of unconventional thoughts, which are always resisted by human beings. Majority of the prisoners, due to their long association with dim light cave, seem to be comfortable in their shackles and any new bright exposures are seen as ‘false and unethical’! Hence, the prisoner turned philosopher is able to convince only a handful of prisoners in the cave.

Real Knowledge is to be sought outside the cave, but, most of the humanity due to their preconceived wrong belief and opinion is very much ill equipped to face the truth with the torch of intelligence.

Enlightenment is not that easy.
( To be continued.)

Chapter 10 – Soul, Mind, Body – Plato’s Theory on Soul

Chapter 10 - Plato's Theory on Soul

Opinions and theories of Socrates and Plato are similar in respect of everything discussed by them, as all the recordings of Socrates are by Plato himself. Plato could not differentiate himself from his teacher philosopher Socrates’ thinking and expositions. Hence what is stated to be for Socrates will equally applicable to Plato and vice versa.

Plato held that every human being includes three souls like three classes of citizen within the state, each of them contributing in its own way to the successful operation of the whole person.

Three classes of citizen are Rulers, Soldiers and General Public.

1.Rulers are responsible for making decisions according to which the nation will be governed. Rulers must have the virtue of wisdom, the capacity to comprehend reality and to make impartial judgments.

2.Soldiers to defend the nations against external and internal enemies. Soldiers need the virtue of courage, the willingness to carry out their orders in the face of danger without regard for personal risk.

3.General Public to follow its leaders instead of their private interests in order to exhibit the virtue of moderation, the subordination of personal desires to a higher purpose.

Similarly, the three souls as expounded by Plato are:

1.The Rational Soul meaning mind or intellect. This is the beacon light to make every one to lead a just life, eschewing all wrongs and making the rational decisions to make human life proper in all respects. Akin to Rulers.

2.The spiritual soul meaning will or volition. Life of human is determined by the intellect which the soul adheres courageously. Akin to Soldiers.

3.The appetitive soul meaning emotion or desire. By strictly following self control guided by the rational pursuits, most of one’s human wants and emotions must be deferred. Akin to General Public.

In the Phaedrus, Plato presented this theory even more graphically, comparing the rational soul to a charioteer whose vehicle is drawn by two horses, one powerful but unruly (appetitive soul - desire) and the other disciplined and obedient (spiritual soul - will).

On Plato's view, then, a human being is properly said to be just when the three souls perform their proper functions in harmony with each other, working in consonance for the good of the person as a whole.

In short, the three souls can be classified as under:

1.Rational Soul (Thinking) - Wisdom

2.Spirited Soul (Willing) - Courage

3.Appetitive Soul (Feeling) - Moderation

In spite of all explanations about soul, its properties, its functions etc. one is left with a feeling of uncertainties as if in a cave chained as a slave.

Let us discuss in our next issue, the famous Plato’s allegory of Cave as expounded by him in the famous treatise ‘The Republic – Book – vii.’

Soul, Mind and Body by Jayanathinathan

Chapter 9 - Ghost - Real Story


Ghost or spirit can be good or evil. We have indicated that the soul who could not live up to its destined period, will wander in the wilderness till the completion of its period. It can even enter the living body suppressing the original soul for a short period. Though soul has no gender distinction, the ghost or spirit does not normally lose its gender difference.

One of my close relatives had undergone the agony of the ghost creating tremendous problems for a few years. One of the male members was afflicted with a ghost. When the ghost entered his body, the original person’s entity would be lost. This could be known by the voice of the ghost which would be quite different from that person’s original voice. A male ghost could enter a female person and vice versa.

In the incident which was known to me, the male ghost would be speaking from the body of the person suppressing his original soul during that period. The ghost would demand that he was hungry and that he wanted food to be served. The food that was served would be eaten by the ghost in no time. The ghost would tell the relatives around in the house that he would come again on a particular date at such and such time on the same person and that he wanted a specific food to be served, as otherwise he would create problems for the person under his control.

Believe me, the ghost would come again on that person exactly on the same date and time as revealed! The ghost would eat all the food served with gusto. When the ghost had left the body of the person, that person would come back to his normal sense.
Actually, he would not remember anything that had happened when he was under the spell of the ghost. Even his appetite would not have been affected in spite of his taking sumptuous food served to the ghost. You would be surprised to know that the person regaining his normal composure would demand his normal share of food.

When the ghost was confronted with the question “Why did you trouble us? Why did you not go away from that person?”, the ghost would answer that if any one in the house was willing to offer his body, he would leave that person. But, who would be willing to be ready for the ghost’s request? And hence, the ghost’s ability or otherwise to enter other person could not be known. Further, there is no logic or reason for having chosen originally that person to ‘live’ within him for a short period.

After a few years, the person was cured of the ghost. Because the ‘life period of the ghost’ might have expired!
(To be continuted.)

Soul, Mind, Body by Jayanthinathan

Chapter 8 - Views of Soul


Spirit is akin to soul, but not soul. Spirit is a supernatural, incorporeal being, as a ghost. There are many instances wherein the ghosts had been photographed and published in papers.
I had read an article in the Readers’ Digest long back which I like to narrate from my memory.
The story goes like this: It was midnight. A diplomat was sitting in the garden reading a book. He was by nature a courageous man and had even served in the army.

Suddenly, he could see some figure moving nearby. He had shouted without moving from his seat. The figure was still and with a torch in his hand, he moved towards the figure.
On nearing the figure, he focused the torch towards its face. The illumined face of the figure had registered in his mind. The figure had disappeared.

After the lapse of some years, in a different country, he was posted as a diplomat. He was asked to preside over an important meeting in that country.

He was accompanied by a few officials who took him near the lift. The meeting was to be held in the top floor for which he had to use the lift. He saw the face of the lift man. The diplomat was taken a back, as the lift-man’s face had reminded him of the face of the figure that was seen and registered in his mind some years back in some other country.

He was hesitant to use the lift. So, he said that he would come later. Hence a few who accompanied him, had gone inside the lift. The lift was shattered in the midway and all inside including the lift man had died.

The diplomat had then explained about his predicaments about the lift man who, according to him, was a ghost in a human form.
Spirit or Ghost may be good or evil. It will have the shape of flame or smoke. Mostly the color will be white. The head will be prominent with body like shape drooping down. It will be a shadowy figure.

Soul is destined to be in the body earmarked for the specified period. If the person discarding the time frame commits suicide or dies in an accident, then the soul is said to take the shape of a ghost to complete the period of its existence in the world as predetermined.
If such spirit enters any one’s body, the soul belonging to that body will be overpowered till its exit.

There are some known instances of such spirits entering the persons which will demand from the people nearby to serve him food etc.

The details of such happenings will be dealt with in our next issue.
(To be continued.)

Chapter 7 - Views of Soul by Socrates

In our previous chapters, we had delved to some extent the general characteristics of soul and the opinions of various Greek philosophers.
Now, we are going to know the views held by three famous Greek philosophers - viz. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. We can call them as trio, as there are vital relationships between these three philosophers. Plato was Boswell to Socrates the Johnson and Plato was the most ardent disciple of Socrates who had recorded all his dialogues, speeches and arguments in great graphic details. The world would not have known the greatness of Socrates, if Plato had not brought out Socrates’ literary thoughts in written format and that too, in such minute forms.

Socrates was unlettered like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the Guru of Swami Vivekananda, but they were born genius and well knowledgeable. The futility of mere education has been well proved by these two great souls.
Aristotle was the disciple of Plato. Theories about soul as expended by these three Great Greek Philosophers could be said to be the best in so far as their scientific treatment of the most obscure subjects.

Aristotle treatment on Soul in his famous book “On Soul” is really quite comprehensive enough to have a deeper insight compared to Plato’s Republic. But, all those three philosophers had their own judgments in dealing with the soul – human soul in particular and soul in general.

Let us start with Socrates.

Socrates said that the soul is immortal and that the soul also knows the truths of its separation from the body at the time of death. This argument confronts head-on the widespread theory like Cebes, that the soul is a material thing and is destroyed by being dispersed like breath or smoke. Soul, according to Socrates, is divine, formless, intelligible, part-less and impermissible. In fine, body and soul differ in kind, the one being perceptible and perishable, the other being intelligible and exempt from destruction.

According to Plato, the Soul has a role to play in making the body to take proper judgments. The Soul is said to control the senses and hence there are ‘wise soul’ and ‘devil soul’. Perhaps, we call these souls as conscious guidance. However, it should be clear that the soul is not simply the mind, as we conceive of it. The soul is immortal because it has life essentially the way fire has heat essentially. It is plain that these arguments apply to the souls of all living things, including plants.

The Plato’s Republic also puts forward a new theory of soul. It is stated that the embodied human soul has at least three parts or aspects, namely reason, spirit and appetite.

Socrates begins by enunciating a principle to the effect that opposite actions, affections and states cannot be assigned to one thing in respect of the same part of it, in relation to the same object and at the same time.

Desiring and being averse are opposites, and hence that desiring to do something and being averse to doing that same thing are opposites in relation to the same object. But it does frequently happen, Socrates points out that the soul desires to do something and at the same time is averse to doing that same thing.

This happens, for instance, when a person is thirsty and on that basis wants to drink, but at the same time wishes not to drink, on the basis of some calculation or deliberation, and in fact succeeds in refraining from drinking, thirsty though they are. It follows from the premises stated that the human soul must have at least two parts, so that one opposite (the desire to drink) can be assigned to one part of the soul and the other (the aversion to drinking) can be assigned to the other.

Having thus identified reason and appetite as distinct parts of the soul, Socrates draws attention to other kinds of conflict between desires, which bring to light spirit, the third part of the soul.

Soul, Mind and Body by Jayanthinathan

Chapter 6 : Democritus’s views on Soul

Democtritus, meaning ‘chosen of the people’, was a pre-Socratic Greek materialististic philosopher. He was also known as ‘the Laughing Philosopher’ because of his emphasis on the value of ‘cheerfulness.’ Democritus was a student of Leucippus and co-originator of the belief that all matter is made up of various imperishable, individual elements which he called as Atoms.

Democtritus had inherited wealth from his father and had travelled widely visiting Asia, Ethiopia, Babylone, Egypt and even India. He was actually proud of his travels and would boast himself as a widely travelled philosopher.
Aristoxenus wrote that Plato wanted to burn all the works of Democritus, but could not do so because the books were already in wide circulation. Failing this, he avoided any mention of Democritus in his own writings. Certainly, Socrates’ brand of argument might not have fared well against Democritus, who was described by Timon as "the guardian of discourse, a keen witted disputant". This statement paints Plato in a bad light and perhaps intellectuals are quite different from moral moorings. Still greatness of Plato could not be disputed.

Hermippus wrote that when Democritus was nearing his end, his sister was upset because his death could prevent her from worshipping at the three-day festival of Thesmophoria. Democritus told her not to worry, and kept himself alive by inhaling the fresh smell of baked loaves until the end of the festival, when he relinquished his life without pain. Hipparchus wrote that Democritus was then in his 109th year. It is said that at his advancing age he spent his days and nights in caverns and sepulchers, and that, in order to master his intellectual faculties, he blinded himself with burning glass. This story, however, is discredited by the writers who mention it insofar as they say he wrote books and dissected animals, neither of which could be done well without eyes.
The above is a brief life history of Democritus and let us dwell about his theories in general and soul in particular.

Democtritus is the first thinker on record to explain ‘the void’. According to him, he denied that the void can be equated with nothing. To him, void is vaccum. However, he had accepted the existence of only two things: Atom and Void.

In his own words, he explains atom and void thus: By convention there is sweet, by convention there is bitterness, by convention hot and cold, by convention color; but in reality there are only atoms and the void.

The void has, as it were, a spatial being. Democritus asserted that space, or the Void, had an equal right with reality, or Being, to be considered existent. He conceived of the Void as a vacuum, an infinite space in which moved an infinite number of atoms that made up Being i.e. the physical world.

These atoms are eternal and invisible; absolutely small, so small that their size cannot be diminished - hence the name atom, or "indivisible"; Atoms are absolutely full and incompressible, as they are without pores and entirely fill the space they occupy; and homogeneous, differing only in shape, arrangement, position, and magnitude.

According to Democritus, the soul is composed of such fine and spherical atoms. The shape of soul’s atom is spherical and as the soul is spherical, its nature is never to be still, but to move. In the process of its movement, it draws the whole body along with it and set it in motion. The soul atom is similar to fire atom: small, spherical, capable of penetrating sold bodies and spontaneous motion.

When the soul is disturbed, its motion affects the body in a violent way. On the other hand, when the soul is at rest, it regulates thoughts and actions harmoniously. Freedom from disturbance is the condition that causes human happiness, and this is the ethical goal. Democritus identifies the ultimate good as cheerfulness. That is the state in which the soul lives peacefully and tranquilly, undisturbed by fear or superstition or any other feeling.

Democritus argued that one’s own consciousness of right and wrong should prevent one from doing anything shameful, not the fear of breaking the law or being vilified by public opinion. He thought that most things in life could be set in order by an intelligent farsightedness. With regard to aesthetics he is said to have remarked that there is no poetry without madness.

In short, soul is atom, spherical in shape, fire in composition, cheerfulness in nature. On our next issue, we will be concentrating on the thoughts and theories about Soul and Mind as propunded by Socratis, Plato and Aristotle.