This paper is an attempt to elucidate the characteristics and meanings of the education of the appetitive part of the soul in Plato’s Republic. For this purpose, I have examined the characteristics of the appetitive part and distinction between nece...
This paper is an attempt to elucidate the characteristics and meanings of the education of the appetitive part of the soul in Plato’s Republic. For this purpose, I have examined the characteristics of the appetitive part and distinction between necessary and unnecessary appetites. According to the education program Plato suggested, through education in music and poetry and physical training from an early age, we can learn how to avoid intemperance and how to desire correctly. With regard to the education of the appetites, what is most remarkable is his characteristic view of the role of the rational part. For him, reason is understood not simply to be a rational coordinator of appetites, but to have its own appetites. He thought that the rise in consciousness was possible through activities for pursuing truth by reason. The education of the appetitive part of the soul is ultimately to elevate the power of eros, which yearns for beauty and good, in the right direction.