Theory of man, the problem of the soul and psychology in Plato.
In Western history there have been, fundamentally, two concepts of the soul: 1. As a principle of life (Aristotle) 2. As a principle of rational knowledge (Plato) The doctrine about the soul has to be understood from the theory of ideas. The rationality of the soul resides in the knowledge of ideas; the soul naturally belongs to the world of ideas and feels driven to it. The most important thing is its faculty of knowledge: the soul places itself in relationship with the eternal, with the only thing that truly is, with ideas. The soul has an intermediate situation between two worlds: by its divine origin it is related to Ideas, but it is not an Idea. While ideas remain eternally immutable and inaccessible, belonging to the supersensible world, the soul, for a time, is within a perishable body that hinders its divine origin. It has the following characteristics: § Is immortal § The immortality of the soul, since the body is corruptible ...