Single Idea 6009

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 2. Psuche]

Full Idea

Plato makes psychic conflict intelligible by appeal to a conception of the soul such that the soul is closely connected to the body at the level of appetite and relatively separate from the body at the level of reason.

Gist of Idea

Psychic conflict is clear if appetite is close to the body and reason fairly separate

Source

report of Plato (The Republic [c.371 BCE], 339b) by Deborah K.W. Modrak - Classical theories of Mind

Book Reference

'Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy', ed/tr. Zeyl,Donald J. [Fitzroy Dearborn 1997], p.345


A Reaction

I'm not sure about this at the level of biology or ontology, but at the phenomenal level this is obviously right. Hunger makes consciousness feel like a physical event, but doing arithmetic doesn't seem remotely physical.