In the early spring of 2013 I had
the pleasure to attend three “Socratic” lectures in London given by the
Prometheus Educational Trust. I posted brief details on this blog at the time
for anyone who might want to go along; but now I wish to pick out one or two
threads and ideas from those talks. This post will outline the essence of what
Socrates and Plato meant by VIRTUE and EXCELLENCE (ARETE)– which is just
slightly different than what we often regard as “the virtues” as later
described in specific detail by Aristotle. Tim Addey reminds us in his first
talk ‘The Philosopher in the World’ that philosophy (the love of wisdom) in its
simplest sense is just about making the best choice we can when faced with a
range of possible actions in a given situation. Every human being chooses what
they consider to be the wisest choice and rejects the more foolish according to
their own criteria. No-one would choose to act foolishly we can presume –
although that may become apparent in hindsight.
We have as Tim suggests to make
our way through the drama of life, hopefully avoiding too much tragedy – and
hopefully not “frutting and stretting like poor actors across the stage” too
much as Shakespeare once beautifully put it. In order to live well – we must
Know Ourselves as inscribed above Apollo’s temple in Delphi; and this means to
know where we are and what we are as individual human beings, collective
societies and as human beings within a vast universe. Now whether readers of
this piece are religious and spiritual people or not – I want to find and use a
term for the inner self – or rational consciousness – that makes rational
decisions about the actions we can take. Tim Addey suggests using the word
‘soul’ providing we can leave the considerable baggage associated with this
word behind. I somehow doubt this – and so will stick to the word “psyche” used
by the ancient Greeks, which literally meant 'breath'. Keep in mind that the
word 'psyche' meant a little bit more to the ancient Greeks in some ways that
soul means to us today; but in other ways carried less baggage than the word
'soul' does to most people today. For the non-spiritual reader “rational
consciousness as yet to be fully scientifically explained” will do just as well
– but I shall use psyche for convenience now.
Now the seeker of wisdom – the
philosopher – in the Socratic and Platonic tradition consciously cultivates
wisdom as he goes through the life lived by the psyche while living as a human
being here on earth.
The psyche is seen as having
three essential faculties or powers - and one of these might be called the
‘desiring’ nature which pursues what it perceives to be goodness through an
instinctive attraction to whatever is beautiful.
The second faculty we can call
the ‘knowing’ nature which peruses goodness and truth through investigation and
trying to look beyond the first appearances of the person or situation
requiring action. On another level it persues the truly good rather than what
merely appears to be good or a good idea.
The third faculty or power sits
somewhere between the previous two - almost trying to harmonise them into a
unified whole. This third faculty was known as ‘thumos’ in Greek – which
actively desires the good but listens also to the rational and investigative
part of the psyche. It is often vary clumsily translated with the word 'anger'
today – but it should include ‘spirited’ and 'vibrant' and 'positive actions'
within its borders. Once again, we must be cautious with the way some words are
translated since we use some words differently these days. I will therefore
keep to the word thumos for this third faculty or power of the psyche.
This gives us a tri-partite
psyche (soul) in the Platonic view – and this idea comes up time and again in
the writings of Plato in various ways. My favourite example is in the Phaedrus
dialogue – where we find the Myth of the Charioteer presenting the rational
part of the psyche as a Charioteer being pulled by a good white horse (the
spirited, active and ordinative part of the psyche) and a dark unruly horse
which represents the desiring or appetitive part of the psyche. Without
going into all the details here – it is sufficient to quote that: ‘the life of
the Charioteer is not always an easy one…..’
Now….. finally moving to my main
theme of this particular blog – the virtue & excellence of the various
parts of the psyche – I should point out that each of the three main faculties
of the soul mentioned above can be improved individually – which leads on to
the improvement of the whole psyche. Indeed, each of the three faculties has a
perfection – and were a person able to perfect all three areas he would have
perfected his psyche or soul as much as a human being could in the this mortal
life. The perfection of these three faculties of the soul is ARETE in its
formal description – that is VIRTUE and EXCELLENCE.
Specifically, the improvement and
excellence of rational, knowing, investigative faculty of the soul (the
Charioteer) is wisdom - where we become proficient in recognising the truly
good from what only appears to be good….
The excellence of the thumos
(spirited and active part - the white horse) is fortitude or courage – which
keeps us going in tough and difficult times – and can keep us steadfast and stable
amidst the storms of life. It also helps to keep us true to the
directions of the rational faculty, even in difficult times when easier options
to choose from might tempt us away from the path we have chosen.
The improvement or excellence of
the desiring quality of the soul (the dark unruly horse) is temperance – so
that our pursuit of goodness in the form of beauty remains within its proper
limits…. and allows our normal human desires to be kept under the control of
the rational faculty. (It is not wrong to have desires per se in Plato –or to
act on these desires providing that are kept under rational control.
In addition to the three virtues
or excellences of the psyche mentioned above (temperance, wisdom, fortitude or
courage) there is a fourth virtue in the Platonic tradition JUSTICE – which is
mostly where a civil community is arranged in the best way for the community.
Justice can also be applied to our personal choices and therefore psyche or
soul in some ways.This is a reasonable enough point to clarify that while we
often talk about a tripartite soul in Plato - it does not mean that it is in
three distinct bits which are then stuck together - it simply means that there
are three distinct qualities or powers to the psyche.
Now just a little more about
these four virtues – three which are mostly faculties of the psyche or soul –
and the fourth which largely applies to our communities and societies as a
whole. The psyche can exercise its various powers outwardly towards the world,
inwardly towards itself, and upwardly so to speak towards the immaterial
causes, the divine, and the metaphysical. In each of these three cases
(directions) the development of the four virtues is necessary if the process of
obtaining excellence (ARETE) is to be advanced.
When the virtues are directed
outwardly they are called civic or political virtues;
When the virtues are directed
inwardly for self-improvement they are called cathartic (or purifying) virtues;
When directed upwards they are
called contemplative or theoretic virtues; (….. and Tim Addey reminds us in his
talk that: ‘for the causes from which we descend are only to be seen in purest
contemplation’.)
“Bite Size Chunks” is one of the
promises of this blog and so I will finish this introductory look at the
Socratic Platonic four virtues here. I will conclude by adding just one more
paragraph from the notes to Tim Addey’s talk on this subject:
‘This then, is the internal
constitution of the human soul, with its powers and excellences: but what is
the place of such a creature in the world? If justice enables parts to
contribute to the whole, what kind of life should we be living in order to both
give and take goodness in the universe…….. and how will the lover of wisdom
extend the goodness inherent in his or her soul into the material world.
Notes: I hope to place some more
ideas from these Prometheus Trust talks into “Bite Size Chunks” in due course.
For those who would like to read more on this now take a look at my original
post about these talks which has links to the full notes.
For those of you who would like to read how I
personally think this background is useful for our lives today (4 Today) there
is a short piece on this subject on my more personal blog at: Virtue
and Excellence In Leisure Time
