Our Souls *dark sinister music*

The other day I was having a delicious conversation with someone about Jainism, which led in to a conversation about our souls. Now the whole premise of my argument was, and still is, based on Plato's Tripartite Soul. Anyone who knows me well enough has heard me mention this theory. Even those who don't know me have heard me mention it. It's probably because it's one of the more interesting ideas that one of those old dead guys came up with.

Well, to give a general idea about the whole theory it basically says that our souls are divided up in to three parts: the appetitive part, spirited part, and reason. The appetites are our desires and wants. This part of the soul is more directly related to the body and its needs (e.g. hunger, thirst, comfort, sexual gratification). The spirited part is our emotions. What we say comes from our "heart" fall in this category (e.g. courage, pride, love, hate). Then there is reason. This is all the intellectual ideas and reasoning done, which of course is thought to be housed in the brain.

So, to go back: Jainism is the philosophy or religion that you should deny all desires, wants, needs for the pursuit of a higher understanding. They are big on pacifism and discipline. In this conversation I also mentioned the Stoics, who were big on denying emotion and feeling for the pursuit of a higher understanding.

My argument stated that instead of going to the extremes to deny one part of the soul or the other (like in Jainism and Stoicism), why don't we temper each part of the soul but let reason rule (or make final decisions)? For example, when you fall in love....feel that love. Enjoy it! But certainly don't lose your head over it. Feelings change and love is beautiful, but it is meant to be enjoyed. Too many turn love in to an obsession that soon becomes just a huge stress in their life.

Or how about hunger.... There are many who eat just for the sake of eating. They do it because it tastes good, but later it hurts them in ways concerning their health. So, enjoy your food, but in moderation. Let reason say "this is enough, let's stop now and we can have more later".

Well, this of course was Plato's original argument in the Republic but later he warned that we should disconnect ourselves from Appetite and the Spirited part, which I wrote a rather lengthy paper on back in college. If they are a part of our souls then they are a part of us. It is true that when we die we lose our body and therefore, perhaps, the appetitive part of our soul dies or becomes obsolete (depending on your religious views), but I still feel that our soul will remain intact because our souls are what make us who we are. They are our spark. I can't see the point in trying to deny that which is ourselves.