PHL3201 Ancient and Medieval Philo PDF

Pre-Socratics Pre-Socratic Period Philosophical thought revolved around cosmological problems. Historical Overview Geographically, phi...

Pre-Socratics Pre-Socratic Period Philosophical thought revolved around cosmological problems. Historical Overview Geographically, philosophy was born along the Questions coast of Asia Minor (also known as Anatolia, a What is the principle of all things? large peninsula in modern-day Turkey), in the Where did the universe come from? How Greek colonies of Ionia. did it emerge? More than 2,500 years ago, in the early 6th century Physical / Natural Philosophers** BCE, a few inhabitants of the Greek city of Miletus Aristotle called these philosophers the physical or (on the western coast of what is now Turkey) began natural philosophers It consists of: (IPEP) to think about the world in a new way. ▪ The Ionians ▪ The Pythagoreans The memories of these Ionian philosophers are ▪ The Eleatics credited to Aristotle. According to Aristotle, these ▪ The Pluralists Ionian philosophers were preceded by the poet- theologians like Homer, Hesiod, and the Orphic (**This can appear on Enumeration part, memorize) poets Their explanations of the universe were mythological in nature. Classical Period Focused on man himself Ancient philosophers’ attempts were a departure Socrates belongs to this period of from the mythical explanations of the universe humanism given by their predecessors, which were inspired More breadth and depth in their speculative on religious grounds. inquiries The division of philosophy into different 4 Periods of Ancient Philosophy** branches is given definitive shape during (PreSocClaHellRom) this period, especially because of Aristotle The Pre-Socratic Period Hellenistic and Roman Period The Classical Period (Socrates, Plato, o With three main philosophical schools Aristotle) Hellenistic period ▪ Stoicism Roman Period ▪ Epicureanism ▪ Skepticism (**This can appear on Enumeration part, memorize) Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB o Neoplatonism Hesiod’s Theogony, for example, tells us the o Confluence of various philosophies story of the origin not only of the gods but Middle Platonism also of the world Neo-Pythagoreanism School of Alexandria – strong religious Thales coloring the first philosopher – focused more on rational discourse than myth in explaining the nature of the world. Pre-Socratic Philosophers Markedly, Hesiod and other The Ionians/Milesians Thales poet-theologians also used reason; Thales Anaximander also used mythology. The difference is the Anaximenes predominance of one over the other (myth Heraclitus (from vs logos) Ephesus) Poet-theologians give a mythical account of the origin of the cosmos; the Ionians give The Pythagoreans explanations of the first absolute principle (the arche) of the world The Eleatics Parmenides Hesiod’s Theogony written in 7th century Zeno BC was the bible of everyone living at the time – explained the origins of the gods, The Pluralists Empedocles origins of man, earthquakes, thunder, Anaxagoras lightning – results of some god doing Democritus something in the god realm. (**This can appear on MT, Enu.. part, memorize) Thales was born in Miletus. Exact date is unknown, Contributions of Pre-Socratics but is said to have started his philosophical career The term “Pre-Socratic” refers to at the start of the 6th C.B.C. philosophers who were not influenced by Socrates (470-399 BCE), in most cases Highly educated – well versed in geometry and because they lived before him. astronomy that he picked up during his travels to Unfortunately, no work of any Pre-Socratic Egypt earlier on philosophers have survived. Not all of them actually lived in ancient Physically attractive like a Greek god, extremely Greece (culture stretched across Ionia) rich with a successful business Poet-theologians – predecessors of the physical philosophers from Miletus. Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB Arche of Thales This primal formlessness would then All things around us is made of water devolve into opposite properties that could Looked out at the ocean and saw a ton of be experienced – hot and cold, dry and wet, water heavy and light, etc. All land is just floating on top of water like a HOT VS COLD (from apeiron) = their ship struggle produced the cosmos Every single life-form need water to survive Anaximenes Anaximander Born at the beginning of the 6th C.B.C. and Star student of Thales died towards the end of the same century. He was born in Miletus around the year 611 Student of Anaximander B.C. and was a disciple of Thales The first principle of Anaximenes is infinite He wrote a book titled On Nature like that of Anaximander’s; however, it has a definite nature Rejected the idea that reality can be Air – first principle reduced into one specific element. Looked for something even more basic, Air as First Principle something that rises above or transcends It is infinite, encompasses all things, and it the arena of this world, a world with is in constant movement chronological and spatial boundaries The emergence of new things result from Water, fire, air, and earth are limited and air’s perpetual movement finite, so they can't be the arche (principle or Air has a divine nature origin of things) Living beings need respiration. The entire Arche must not be limited because it's the universe is composed of living beings, it eternal source of everything appeared logical to choose air as the first principle Anaximander Arche Disagreed with Anaximander’s claim of the Apeiron – “the infinite” or “the unlimited” – indeterminate nature of the first principle that constituted the first principle Needed a clearer and more coherent The Apeiron – formless, initial state explanation of the origin of the different The material world is made up of opposites substances (wet-dry; etc.) The apeiron generated the opposites (hot Heraclitus and cold) which later on led to the creation He was born in the middle of the 6th C.B.C., of the cosmos and died around 480 BC. Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB  Enjoyed his isolation; not a people person; Pythagoras - known for the Pythagorean theorem get off my lawn guy Number as the essence of all things Didn’t like compliments; he was mean Understanding the world through mathematical connections Fire as the first principle Mathematical patterns in the cosmos Fire is what changes into various forms of things; it The duration of the year, the seasons, the is the source of reality, and remains present in all length of the day, things as their substratum All things are numbers. The essence and structure Everything is in a permanent state of flux (e.g. day of all things can be determined by finding the and night then day and night again the next day) numerical relations they express. The universe is kept in a state of unity by these Musical harmony, for example, could be reduced to battling opposites a set of numerical relations (e.g. musical scale) Despite the supposed “chaos” suggested by idea of For instance, the same harmonies can be produced constant change, he saw everything in the universe with different instruments – strings, pipes, disks, as being governed by some divine logos etc. – by means of the same numerical ratios in one ▪ Logos - universal cosmic law that governs dimensional extensions all things Things that we think of as opposites are actually Parmenides just one thing (ex. Day and night – opposite ends of Parmenides was born about 510 BCE and a spectrum) lived most of his life in Elea, a colony founded by Greek refugees in the southwest Sayings of Italy. “You can never step in the same river twice” Founder of the so-called Eleatic School “There is nothing permanent except change.” (so-named for Elea, Italy, where he lived) The Pythagoreans Opposite to Heraclitus’ philosophy (One) Most of the things we hear about these The entire universe consists of one thing, which philosophers are from Plato and Aristotle never changes, has no parts, and can never be destroyed. He calls this single thing the One. Pythagoras - Almost like a mythical figure – most Granted, it may appear as though things change in of the stuff we know about him were written by his the world, such as when a large oak tree grows followers from a tiny acorn. It may also appear as though Like a cult leader; love for math and astronomy there are many different things in the world, such Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB as rocks, trees, houses, and people. However, place in which it is not, and that Achilles cannot according to Parmenides, all such change and outrun a turtle because, when he has reached its diversity is an illusion. In spite of appearances, starting point, the turtle will have moved to a further there is only one single, unchanging, and eternal starting point, and so ad infinitum – that, in fact, he thing that exists. Why would Parmenides offer a cannot even start running, for, before traversing the theory that is so contrary to appearances? The stretch to the starting point of the turtle, he will have answer is that he was more persuaded by logical to traverse half of it, and again half of that, and so reasoning than by what he saw with his own eyes. on ad infinitum. Parmenides argues that the One must be Empedocles motionless: If it moved, then it would not exist Zeno’s skepticism concerning matter and motion where it was before, which involves illogically was challenged by the Sicilian philosopher asserting that something is not. Also, Parmenides Empedocles. He argued that the reality of motion argues that the One must be a perfect sphere. If it (and change, which is a form of motion) is too were irregular in any way—such as a bowling ball obvious to deny. with three holes drilled in it—this would involve a He subscribes to Parmenides’ idea of the region within the ball where nothing existed. This immutability of the real too would wrongly assert that something is not. However, he does not deny the existence of sensible reality Everywhere we see things in flux, and to us this represents genuine change. But Parmenides Principles that always remain unchanged: the four rejected these commonsense notions and insisted elements (fire, water, air, and earth) on a distinction between appearance and reality. Transformation of things: result of the various Change and multiplicity, he says, involve a combinations of different principles confusion between appearance and reality. The four elements never change; they remain always the same Zeno It is through their different combinations that Student of Parmenides other things are brought into existence Defended Parmenides Tried to show that the assumption that there Love and Hate – forces that unite the four is motion and plurality leads to elements or separate themselves from one another consequences that are no less strange For Empedocles, motion and change were This he did by means of his famous paradoxes, explained by equal and opposite forces in saying that the flying arrow rests since it can nature that attract and repel each other. neither move in the place in which it is nor in a Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB Anaxagoras alone. (Phaedrus, 278); raise questions about the Anaxagoras (500-428 bce) was from Clazomenae, totality of reality, and probe into its mysteries. a coastal town in what is now Turkey. For Aristotle, too, philosophical knowledge was His major philosophical contribution was the characterized by totality: it was an inquiry about the concept of mind (nous), which he distinguished whole expanse of reality, without excluding any part from matter. Anaxagoras agreed with Empedocles of it that all coming into and going out of being consists merely in the mixture and separation of already Philosophy is a purely rational explanation of the existing substances. totality of reality. A philosopher does not merely observe reality; he inquires into its causes and But he rejected Empedocles' ambiguous and principles – into its first causes and ultimate somewhat mythical notions of Love and Hate, by principles since it is reality taken as a whole that which various objects supposedly form. For constitutes the object of this study. Anaxagoras the world and all its objects were well- ordered and intricate structures; there must, then, Last characteristic of Greek philosophy is its end. be some being with knowledge and power that Philosophy has an exclusively speculative and organizes the material world in this fashion. Such a contemplative end. It seeks no other goal but that rational principle is what Anaxagoras proposed in of knowledge for its own sake, and derives its his concept of Mind, or nous. stimulus from no other source but the natural desire of all men to know. “All men, by their very nature, Democritus have a desire to know.” (Aristotle, Metaphysics, I, 1, Godfather of the idea that everything around 980 a 1.) us consists of atoms and empty space His teacher is Leucippus Aspasia of Miletus Well-traveled and well-educated Saw particles of dust floating around and started thinking about the prospect of Life of Aspasia everything being made out of particles so Aspasia was born in the Ionian colony of Miletus on small they can’t be seen with the naked eye the coast of Asia Minor and immigrated to Athens Atoms- uncuttable; cannot be divided about 450 BC, where she resided as a metic or resident alien. What is philosophy? For Plato, philosophy is the search for wisdom, a She is recognized as an important figure today as kind of knowledge which in itself is unlimited and she defied the restrictive policies of Athenian which corresponds to the infinite knowledge of God society regarding women (who were seen as Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB second-class citizens) to live her life according to Hetairai were much more than just high-class her own vision. prostitutes. According to ancient literary sources and scenes from vase paintings, many hetairai It was her status as a foreigner that also freed were intelligent, beautiful, well-dressed and had Aspasia from the legal restraints that traditionally fewer restrictions on their lives than the confined married women to their homes and respectable, married women in Athens (Athenaeus, allowed her to participate in the public life of Deipnosophistae, 583f.). Athens. Mistress of her own house (one of ill repute, as Plutarch primly points out) and hostess She was said to have operated a salon (which her to friends and supporters who visited, she was witty critics called a 'brothel') and a girl's school that was and educated. also cited by her detractors as either a brothel or a house in which she secured young girls for Aspasia of Miletus (l. c. 470-410/400 BCE) is best upper-class men's pleasure and trained them as known as the consort of the great Athenian courtesans. This could be true as such houses did statesman Pericles. Her life story has always been exist and were considered legitimate businesses given in the shadow of Pericles' fame, but she was and options for women of Ancient Greece. a woman of great eloquence and intelligence in her own right who influenced many of the writers, According to the ancient biographer Plutarch, thinkers, and statesmen of her time. among those who visited Aspasia’s salon was the young Socrates, who was closely contemporary in Aspasia was born to a wealthy family of Miletus. age to Aspasia. At this stage of his life, Socrates This is assumed because of references to her high had not yet developed a fully-fledged philosophical level of education, which suggests Miletus as her personality. The son of a wealthy stoneworker, he hometown, where, unlike in Athens, women of was training to be a hoplite (heavy-armed) soldier, means could receive higher education Like Plato, and he was attending the lectures of sophists who Aeschines of Sphettus wrote philosophical promoted their speculations about time, the dialogues, including an Aspasia, but these have universe, and physics. been lost. She lived in Athens during the so-called Golden She was a hetairai, a trained and paid companion Age of the fifth century BC, when that city under the who accompanied upper-class men to various leadership of the ambitious general Pericles grew symposia. to be the vibrant centre of a maritime empire that According to some ancient sources she was skilled stretched across the Aegean, dominating hundreds in rhetoric and took part in the intellectual of poleis (city-states). discussions of the leading men in Athens, including Socrates. Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB Contributions to Philosophy observing ‘in any given case the available means of Ancient writers from Aristophanes (l. c. 460 - c. 380 persuasion.’ And according to the tradition, Aspasia BCE) to Plato (l. 424/423-348/347 BCE) to Plutarch was such a compellingly persuasive speaker that (l. C. 45/50 - c. 120/125 CE) reference her she taught both Pericles the great military general, eloquence and power in controlling men, and this and Socrates the great philosopher, how to speak established her reputation as none of her own persuasively, and how to win others over. works, if she actually wrote any, have survived. In Plato’s dialogue called the Menexenus, Socrates Plutarch, whose Life of Pericles conveys most of says, ‘I happen to have no mean teacher of oratory’ what is known about her, says that he held Aspasia — and that teacher was Aspasia. in high favor because of her "rare political wisdom" and that she "had the reputation of being In Ancient Greece, the idea of rhetoric was always associated with a whole succession of Athenians, under suspicion. And a female rhetorician was who came to her to learn rhetoric" (XXIV.3–4). perhaps doubly suspect. In Menexenus (235e, 236b), Plato even has And if Aspasia was indeed the Socrates’s teacher Aspasia be the instructor of Socrates in rhetoric (cf. in rhetoric, it is clear that she was successful: Athenaeus, V.219) and the author of Pericles' Plato’s dialogues provide ample evidence of famed funeral oration. Socrates’s enormously persuasive style of debate and argumentation. Socrates who seems to have generally held women in higher regard than most men in ancient Athens, Criticisms is said to have "marveled at her eloquence, and Invariably, she was attacked for her sexual allure credited her with composing the famous funeral and unseemly influence over Pericles and his oration that Pericles delivered in honor of the political policies. Cratinus, for example, calls her "a casualties of the Peloponnesian War and, further, dog-eyed concubine" and Eupolis, a younger claimed that he, Socrates, had learned from contemporary, a whore (pornê) and mother to a Aspasia the art of eloquence" (Durant, 253). bastard. This claim is also made in Plato's dialogue Around 438 B.C. Pericles' political enemies began Menexenus, (235e) where Aspasia is Socrates' attacking those close to him in court and eventually teacher, not only in eloquence but the art of brought charges against Pericles himself. Soon dialectic. Aspasia became a target. She was brought to trial on charges of impiety and of procuring free women. Aspasia was famous chiefly as a rhetorician. She was acquitted thanks to a passionate and Rhetoric is — as Aristotle later argued — the art of tearful defense by Pericles (Plut. Per. 32.1-3). Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB Conclusion skepticism about the ability of human reason to “Remarkably little" can be said about Aspasia and discover the truth about nature. that whatever can be known was the reaction of men to what she did or said at the time, which must Instead of debating alternative theories of nature, have been memorable, indeed, to have provoked philosophers now addressed the problem of human such comment. knowledge, asking whether it was possible to discover any universal truth. She vanished from the history of rhetoric for this very reason: the inability of later scholars to identify The Sophists: her with any given extant works. Protagoras, Gorgias, Thrasymachus. Madeline M. Henry, a leading scholar on the They became popular lecturers and were the chief subject, notes that "Aspasia of Miletus, a key figure source of new education. What made them in the intellectual history of fifth-century Athens, is particularly sought after was that they professed, without question the most important woman of that above all, to teach the art of rhetoric, that is, era" and argues (as Durant and others claimed persuasive speech. The power of persuasion was a earlier) that Aspasia was Socrates' teacher. political necessity in democratic Athens for anyone who hoped to rise to a position of leadership. It has even been claimed that Aspasia could be the model for the character Diotima of Mantinea, the Rhetoric became somewhat like a knife, in that it woman who taught Socrates the meaning of love. could be employed for good or ill—to cut bread or to kill. The sheer difficulty we have when it comes to getting her story straight (in contrast, we know a The Sophists charged fees for their teaching, and whole load about Pericles) is a consequence of the they sought out the rich who were able to pay these way that women’s voices have often been distorted fees. Socrates had studied under the Sophists but and excluded from the tradition. because of his poverty could only afford their “shorter courses” The Sophists Protagoras and Relativism Among the Sophists who came to Athens, The first Greek philosophers focused on nature; the Protagoras of Abdera (ca. 490-420 bce) was the Sophists and Socrates shifted the concerns of oldest and, in many ways, the most influential “Man philosophy to the study of human beings. is the measure of all things, of the things that are, As it was, the controversy over the ultimate that they are, and of the things that are not, that principle of things had generated an attitude of they are not." Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB Knowledge, Protagoras said, is limited to our Socrates various perceptions, and these perceptions will differ with each person. Unlike the Sophists, Socrates engaged in Protagoras concluded, therefore, that knowledge is argumentation, not to attain ends destructive of relative to each person. truth or to develop pragmatic skills among lawyers and politicians, but to achieve substantive concepts When he turned to the subject of ethics, Protagoras of truth and goodness. held that moral judgments are relative. But Socrates wrote nothing. Most of what we know Protagoras did not carry this moral relativism to the about him has been preserved by three of his extreme view that every individual can decide what famous younger contemporaries—Aristophanes, is moral for him- or herself. Instead, he took the Xenophon, and, most importantly; Plato. conservative position that the state makes the laws, and everyone should accept these laws because Our most extensive sources of his thought are the they are as good as any that can be made. Dialogues of Plato, in which he is the leading character. But the persistent question is whether Gorgias and Absence of Truth Plato is here reporting what Socrates actually Gorgias (late fifth century bce) came to Athens from taught or is expressing his own ideas through the Sicily as ambassador from his native city of Leontini figure of Socrates. in 427 bce. Gorgias denied that there is any truth at all. The Human Soul Socrates identified the soul with the normal powers Abandoning philosophy; Gorgias turned to rhetoric of intelligence and character, not as some ghostly and tried to perfect it as the art of persuasion substance. The soul was the structure of personality. However difficult it may have been for Having earlier concluded that there is no truth, he Socrates to describe exactly what the soul is, he was willing to employ the art of persuasion for was sure that the activity of the soul is to know and whatever practical ends he chose. to influence or even direct and govern a person's daily conduct. Thrasymachus He regarded justice as being the interest of the Having attained such knowledge, those who have stronger and believed that "might is right." the proper care of their soul in mind will conduct their behavior in accordance with their knowledge Laws, he said, are made by the ruling party for its of true moral values. In a nutshell Socrates was own interest. These laws define what is right. Here, primarily concerned with the good life, and not with then, is the reduction of morality to power. mere contemplation. Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB Intellectual Midwifery Definitions Socrates was convinced that the surest way to Socrates was struck by our ability to think about attain reliable knowledge was through the practice general ideas and not only about particular things. of disciplined conversation, with this conversation A beautiful flower is at once this particular flower acting as an intellectual midwife. and at the same time an exemplar or partaker of the general or universal meaning of Beauty. This method, which he called dialectic, is a Definition, for Socrates, involves a process by deceptively simple technique. which our minds can distinguish or sort out these two objects of thought, namely, the particular (this Socrates pretends to be ignorant about a subject beautiful flower) and the general or universal (the and then tries to draw out from the other people concept of Beauty of which this flower partakes so their fullest possible knowledge about it. as to make it a beautiful flower). Accordingly, he believed that no unexamined idea Instead of leading to intellectual skepticism and is worth having any more than the unexamined life moral relativism, Socrates believed that the variety is worth living. of facts around us could yield clear and fixed concepts, so long as we employed the technique of The Socratic Method analysis and definition. The Socratic method is a form of cooperative dialogue whereby participants make assertions Criticisms of Democracy about a particular topic, investigate those He criticizes the Assembly for its illegal actions and assertions with questions designed to uncover the Athenian courts for the ease with which matters presuppositions and stimulate critical thinking, and of justice are distorted by emotional pleading. finally come to mutual agreement and understanding about the topic under discussion Socrates implies that the very nature of democracy (though such mutual agreement is not guaranteed makes it a corrupt political system. Bitter or required). experience has taught him that most people rest content with a superficial understanding of the most It is also in his emphasis on definition that Socrates urgent human questions. When they are given most decisively combats the Sophists: Terms have great power, their shallowness inevitably leads to definite meanings, and this undermines relativism. injustice. For him a definition is a clear and fixed concept. Why was he hated? Justice One of the most subtle components of Socrates’ Beauty explanation for the hatred he has aroused is his Goodness point that people hide the shame they feel when Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB they are unable to withstand his destructive Plato arguments. His reputation as a corrupter of the young and as a Sophist and an atheist is sustained Plato was born in Athens in 428/27 bce, one year because it provides people with an ostensibly after the death of Pericles and when Socrates was reasonable explanation of their hatred of him. No about 42 years old one will say, “I hate Socrates because I cannot answer his questions, and he makes me look Around 387 BCE, when he was about 40 years old, foolish in front of the young.” Plato founded the Academy at Athens. This was, in a sense, the first university to emerge in the history He compares himself, at one point, to a gadfly who of Western Europe, and for twenty years, Plato has been assigned by the god to stir a large and administered its affairs as its director. The chief aim sluggish horse of the Academy was to pursue scientific knowledge through original research. Note what this implies: the bite of the fly cannot be anything but painful, and it is only natural that the The execution of Socrates deeply disillusioned horse would like nothing better than to kill it. Plato about politics, thus diverting him personally from an active life of public service. Socrates’ Trial and Death Convinced that the care of the human soul should Plato lectured at the Academy without the use of be our greatest concern, Socrates spent most of his notes. Because his lectures were never written time examining his own life, as well\ as the lives down, they were never published, although notes and thoughts of other Athenians. by his students were circulated. Socrates was brought to trial on the charge: Nevertheless, Plato did compose more than twenty philosophical dialogues, with the longest one of impiety; and running around 200 pages. corrupting the youth. Socratic Dialogues: To the end his friends tried to make possible his Apology, Crito, Charmides, Laches, escape, but Socrates was convinced that to escape Euthyphro, Euthydemus, Cratylus, would be to defy and thereby injure Athens and its Protagoras, and Gorgias procedures of law. That would be to strike at the wrong target. The Theory of Forms and Metaphysical Theories laws were not responsible for his trial and Meno, Symposium, Phaedo, Republic, and sentence; it was his misguided accusers, Anytus Phaedrus and Meletus, who were at fault. Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB Technical Dialogues Theory of Forms Theaetetus, Parmenides, Sophist, Statesman, Plato's theory of the Forms is his most significant Philebus, Timaeus, and Laws philosophical contribution. In a nutshell the Forms are those changeless, eternal, and nonmaterial The Divided Line essences or patterns of which the actual visible objects we see are only poor copies. There is the Form of the Triangle, and all the triangles we see are mere copies of that Form. A beautiful person is a copy of Beauty. We can say about a person that she is beautiful because we know the Form of Beauty and recognize that this person shares more or less in this Form In the Republic Plato shows that the true philosopher wants to know the essential nature of things. When he asks what is justice or beauty, he does not want examples of just and beautiful things. He wants to know what makes these things just and beautiful We could hardly say that they are located in space. Plato's clearest suggestion on this problem is that The Allegory of the Cave the Forms are "separate" from concrete things, that This allegory suggests that most of us dwell they exist "apart from" the things we see. To be in the darkness of the cave, that we have "separate" or “apart from" must mean simply that oriented our thoughts around the blurred the Forms have an independent existence; they world of shadows persist even though particular things perish. Similarly, when those who have been Body and Soul liberated from the cave achieve the highest Plato implies that although the Form is separate knowledge, they must not be allowed to from the thing— that the Form of Humanness is remain in the higher world of contemplation. different from Socrates一still every concrete or Instead, they return to the cave and take actual thing in some way owes its existence to a part in the life and labors of the prisoners. Form. Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB He accentuated this view by saying that it was the Forms through which order was brought into the chaos, indicating the separate reality of form and matter In the Republic Plato describes the soul as having three parts, which he calls reason, spirit, and appetite. What made Plato ascribe these activities to the soul was his assumption that the soul is the principle of life and movement. The body by itself is inanimate, and, therefore, when it acts or moves, it must be moved by the principle of life, the soul. Quicknotes in Ancient Philosophy by APB