What is Plato's tripartite theory of the soul?

Plato considered the psyche to be an incorporeal, eternal essence that decides human behavior and survives bodily death through continual rebirth. He divided this soul into three distinct parts: the logistikon representing reason, the thymoeides representing spirit and emotions like anger, and the epithymetikon representing physical desires and appetites. Inspired partly by Socrates, this psychological model forms a core component of Plato's broader philosophical and political works.

What we know

• Plato viewed the soul as an incorporeal, eternal occupant of a person that continues to exist and think after death. [2]
• The soul is divided into three parts: logistikon (reason), thymoeides (spirit), and epithymetikon (appetite). [1, 2]
• Plato believed that as bodies die, the soul undergoes metempsychosis and is continually reborn in subsequent bodies. [2]
• The spirited part of the soul, thymoeides, houses anger and other spirited emotions. [2]

Where to go next

• how we knowHow does the Republic explore justice and the soul?
• how it workedWhat is the ancient Greek concept of Thumos?
• whoHow did Socrates influence Plato's philosophy?
• the bigger pictureWhat is Plato's Theory of Forms?
• compared withHow does Aristotle's view of the soul differ from Plato's?
• an unexpected connectionHow did Alfred North Whitehead characterize the European philosophical tradition?Alfred North Whitehead famously remarked that the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

Sources

• [1]Plato's tripartite theory of soul (Wikidata Q5493077) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Plato's theory of soul · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Plato · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Republic (Plato) · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Thumos · CC BY-SA 4.0