Plato’s Idea Of “Character Of The Soul” In Today’s Contemporary Society
Within Plato’s analogy lies an idea that tries to explain the ultimate goal or desire of one’s own soul and therefore its life here on earth. This involves how the soul approaches that end and thus becomes a relevant topic that soars through the past and future by virtue of its fundamentality in human nature and how it responds to its reality. In viewing his ideas through a more contemporary lens, Plato’s greek mythological veil over his writing recedes. What’s left is the relevancy of accepting the finality of life (mortality), studying how we develop as persons, and loving philosophical aspects which ultimately culminates in a richer human experience.
Throughout the excerpt there were a large amount of greek mythological imagery such as Zeus and winged chariots. This gives us a glimpse as to what background Plato was coming from and in turn what problems he was trying to address. It tells us that during his time, philosophers were more concerned about the essential causes of things as demonstrated by the idea of true being. Plato believed that the goal of the soul is finding out the truth of things, in short true being. In addition, elements of the soul were being called into question as to say that the “self” is the soul (alluded throughout the Phaedrus excerpt). Plato uses three ideas to illustrate the “character of the soul”: the soul is ever-moving and thus immortal, the tripartite soul, and the return to loving true knowledge. The problem now is that in today’s contemporary society these ideas might need to be adjusted to more measurable and practical terms. Doing this in a way strips away the air of mysticism accompanying them.
To begin, one must realize that the contemporary landscape is dynamic. As soon as one problem is solved, another presents itself. In a way, nothing is ever certain nowadays. Amidst this uncertainty, the contemporary world is plagued by doubt and distractions. More and more people turn to social media to get validation. Suddenly their life revolves around likes and retweets. This produces a doubt towards the value of a person’s life in regards to their social media presence. Also, science and technology is on an ongoing exponential rise and thus presenting the question of relevancy. The new model of today may not always be the one of tomorrow. Subsequently, this also gave way to a more careful examination of theories and ideas leading many people to be more critical and to a lesser extent, more doubtful and distracted by new trends. To sum it up, today’s contemporary world still rings true of Pieper’s definition of a “workaday world”.
Most people are still driven by functional activities that in the end would produce something useful. For example, the cost of living is at an all time high in certain areas of the world. People are forced to dedicate all their time and effort to survive this competitive and dynamic landscape. In today’s case however one must also look at how it’s getting harder and harder to focus on work as well, whether it may be useful or otherwise. The usefulness of work today might not always pertain anymore to physical necessities. Now, it can also mean working to distract from work. This doesn’t necessarily entail that all these distractions reduce stress. In fact, some of them add to it by reducing the amount time needed to do work. In examining and addressing these distractions, Plato’s ideas can now be of use provided that the contemporary context is used to break them down to their core messages/ideas that can be used practically. This might help in guiding a person through today’s dynamic and critical landscape and hopefully gain a better human experience. Firstly, manage your time well. He states that the soul moves the body to act.
Ignoring the the possibility of an afterlife due to practicality, the soul might be considered the psyche as they both identify with what compels a person to act. In combination with the idea/fact of the body being mortal, we can assume that the psyche is in charge of who a certain person will become and be remembered by. Since this is the case, we can breakdown and adjust Plato’s initial idea into the notion of the finality or mortality of physical human life and how limited one’s time really is on earth. Therefore a lesson from this idea is the management of time. Stressful and unwanted distraction will often just lead to the loss of precious time. Of course to manage this time wisely, another of Plato’s ideas come into play, the tripartite soul. Secondly, always practice self-restraint or control. Plato says that the soul, the psyche, can be examined using three concepts. The soul has an insatiable appetite that is motivated by pleasure, it has an honorable spirit that is too uptight in upholding its appearance, and finally it has guiding moral compass in the form of reasoning and intellect. All in all, this simply illustrates the character building process of the psyche. Looking at it as such we can assume that a person always has a motivation, whether morally good or bad, behind their actions again referencing the soul as the driving force of the body. With this idea in mind a person must always keep their motivations in check to assess a situation more critically and act accordingly.
Therefore, a lesson from this idea is the practice of assessing and studying oneself in any given situation. Distractions can be avoided by taking a step back and fully weighing the consequences of one’s action and who knows it might lead to new opportunities. In order for one to realize these ideas, one might find them if they were to look at and love philosophy.
Lastly, meditate on one’s past actions. It is alluded in Plato’s writing, within context of the discussion and excerpt, that to have better life, one must at least nourish the soul. One of the ways is practising philosophy. As Pieper has said, philosophy is not a “common need” that is to say that it is useless from a utilitarian perspective. But he also states that life would be better if philosophy were to mixed with work. This would allow one to detach themselves from living for the sake of living and allow themselves to reevaluate where they are headed with their finite lives. Maybe they can find a good distraction like a hobby to find new meaning/vocation for their lives. Therefore, the lesson from this idea is the constant self-introspection (retrospective introspection) that arises from the love of the philosophical act. Philosophical ideas can always transcend time by acting a baseline to newer ones.
In Plato’s case, the ideas presented here are part of observable human nature. It is in these ideas one can see how a person in contemporary time can approach the finality of life by managing their time, the process of one’s psyche in order to find new opportunities, and finally the philosophical needs of a person that gives new meaning to things and might lead to finding one’s vocation. In the end, these ideas enable people to care about something else than just living, thus these are things that are still relevant to contemporary time and can truly bring about a richer human experience.
