Philosophy - Socrates Soul Statement

Socrates claimed that the soul contains three main parts: a rational part, an appetitive part, and a spirited part. The rational part is the faculty that leads us away from indulgences, while the appetitive part leads us towards them. The rational part is engendered by calculation but the appetitive part generates passive and diseased states. The spirited part is to obey the rational part and carry out its order with courage. Socrates proposed that justice is the best life in which the rational part reigns with the spirited part as its ally, and cultivates the appetitive part. Furthermore, Socrates argued that happiness is determined by the healthiness of the soul. The just soul is the healthiest soul, and therefore the just life is the happiest life. According to the data collected by the Pew research center, the happiest life is not solely due to justice or constantly regulating yourself from needs and pleasure. It is related to other external factors, such as income, education, race, and personal believes. These factors are important and necessary to maintain a healthy body and a healthy soul. Even though these factors could be considered as desires by appetitive part of the soul and should be considered sickness of the soul, they establish happiness in life. This claim constitutes a challenge to Socrates's argument on justice and soul-health in premises 2: if one soul is healthy, then the rational part rules over the other parts of the soul.

According to Socrates, the best life is the one in which one's soul is healthy. If one soul is healthy, the rational part rules over the other parts of the soul. However, more people are happy because of higher income, which is not a good in itself but a good for other consequences, and its consequence, in this case, is happiness. Money could also be a means leading to the highest good: happiness. The part that controls the strong desire or impulse to earn more money is the appetitive part. This means when appetitive part sometimes rule over the other parts of the soul, then the person is happy. However, this appetitive part in control does not cause the soul to be sick. On contrary, it can cause the soul to be healthier since money can be used as a means to receive a better health care for the body and the health of the body also contributes to the health of the soul. Moreover, other external factors are related to happiness as well,