Understanding Ourselves

Recap – Plato & Aristotle’s 4 Key Points 1.The rejection of the view that our self-interests are best served by seeking pleasure or power or injustice 2.The belief that in order to know what the best life is for us we need to understand who we are (what our soul consists of) 3.The claim that developing our virtues enables us to live the best possible life 4.The claim that the best possible life is determined by the ultimate good

Task Shrek is an ogre who runs an advice service for fairytale creatures. These creatures come to Shrek’s swamp from magical lands far and wide in order to ask what they are supposed to be doing with their lives. Read through the list of Shrek’s customers below and then answer the questions that follow: 1.A handsome and brave prince 2.A magical walking tin-opener 3.A donkey who could talk 4.A wicked fairy godmother 5.A dragon For each creature: a)Write down what their function is b)Write down what they need to do in order to fulfil their function well c)How do the answers to a) and b) help the creatures decide what sort of life they should be living

Function and psyche: understanding our selves For Plato and Aristotle an understanding of our self is necessary if we are to identify the best possible life for us. This means examining what kind of creature we are, in order to determine what our purpose or function is – once we have determined out function then we will know what kind of lives we are supposed to be leading

Can We Do This? Do you think finding out what our function is as human beings is easy? How can we go about this?

Discovering Function If you happen to be a dog, then you have a doggy function and your goals in life will be very different from those of humans: to chase after balls, sleep as much as possible, yap all day, eat as much as you can and have lots of sex (is it just me or does that sound a little bit like some humans – John Terry spring to mind perhaps?)

But What Kind of Thing Is A Human? For both Plato and Aristotle it is the type of soul we have that makes us human. Our function as human beings is determined by the make-up of our souls. So if we want to understand our function we need to understand our soul

Plato’s Soul Plato: “I divide the soul into three: two horses and a charioteer. One of the horses is good and the other bad” According to Plato our soul has 2 powerful impulses: spirit and desire, and something that can control these impulses: our reason reason desirespirit soul

We function well as human beings only when each part of our soul is functioning well and performing to its optimum This does not happen when one of our impulses is out of control: if our desire (the bad horse) gets out of control then we become indulgent hedonists with no real sense of what is good for us overall. If spirit (the good horse) gets out of control then we become headstrong, impulsive types always leaping into things and making snap decisions. Again this is no recipe for functioning well

So for Plato these impulses need the firm government of reason (the charioteer) which can control and shape these impulses so that we can use them to attain what is good for us By using reason to maintain a balanced and harmonious soul we are able to make the right decisions, and select the right goals, which enable us to live the best life and flourish [For Plato the problem with hedonism is that reason is not in control and we pursue pleasures that are damaging in the short and the long term

Opinions? Do you think Plato gives a good account of our soul?

Aristotle’s Soul Aristotle agrees with Plato’s claim that reason should rule the soul, but he adds more detail to this claim As well as being a philosopher, Aristotle was also one of the first biologists (someone who studied life in all its forms) He believed that everything in the world had a function, a purpose, and he saw the world around him in those terms

Aristotle also holds that for humans our function is determined by our soul However he has a much more sophisticated, psychological view of the human soul For Aristotle it is like a kind of blueprint for a human being – the instructions for how we are going to develop in our lives He describes the 4 parts of the soul – 2 non-rational parts: nutrition/growth and desire/emotion and 2 rational parts: practical day to day reasoning and abstract, theoretical reasoning

What This Means From their analysis of the human psychology both Plato and Aristotle conclude that humans are meant to reason, and reason well This is the key to understanding what we need to do in order to live the best kind of life and flourish

So... We need to understand how our soul works in order to take the right action and achieve eudaimonia.... Questions, comments, theories...?