________________
Atman (Soul)
Art & Science of Meditation
theproblem of other minds, which suggests that we cannot know if other people really have consciousness.
Socrates and Plato
Drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how we behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being. Socrates says that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn in subsequent bodies and Plato believed this as well, however he thought that only one part of the soul was immortal (logos). The Platonic soul comprises three parts:
1. The logos or logistikon (mind, nous or reason)
2. The thymos, or thumetikon (emotion or spiritedness or masculine)
3. The eros, or epithumetikon (appetitive or desire or feminine)
Aristotle
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) defined the soul or psyche as the first actuality of a naturally organized body, but argued
(98)