Plato discusses a lot of his personal views in his work The Republic but the one I find most valuable is his explanation of the tripartite soul, an explanation he gives more detail to in his allegory of the chariot from his 𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘥𝘳𝘶𝘴. Many know of his allegory of the cave. You can find an article about the allegory of the cave on this site, but some consider the allegory of the chariot to be the first insight into psychology before psychology existed.
The setup for this metaphor includes a charioteer, a white winged horse, and a black horse, both leading the chariot. The charioteer represents logic, leading the horses, reining them in and giving them direction. The first horse, brilliant, white, and winged, represents the spirit, noble, creative, and exciting. The second horse, black, unyielding, represents appetite, a human need that often thwarts reason. These, in Plato’s words, are the three parts to the human soul.
Let’s break this down a bit. The black horse is Appetite. Appetite is necessary, for human survival, human instinct to breed, sleep, find safety, and hunt or harvest food. Primitive basic needs but, nevertheless, important. For the appetite to work correctly, the caveman has to be curious enough to climb the tree to get to the apple. Because of how unwieldy Appetite is, the cave man will starve and die before reaching that apple. Something has to reign appetite in or we wouldn’t be human, we’d be like every other primitive creature.
The white horse, Spirit, is noble and creative. With today’s knowledge of psychology, you could call this the right brain. This idea is not primitive survival, but feeds the soul and mind rather than the body. However, this too must be reigned in, as good as it is, one must have appetite, and with creativity but no knowledge to harvest it, how can it flourish.
The charioteer, Logic / Reason, reigns these two horses in, primitive thinking, creativity, and logic, being the ruling tyrannical force. Logic keeps these horses in check, while these wild exciting natures of the human mind do their best to make sure their ruler does not become a tyrant. For logic to live alone he would never get anywhere, he needs horses to lead him.
Reason has no curiosity. He does not get anywhere without his horses. Appetite needs curiosity to find the fruit and satisfy his famine. Spirit harvests curiosity and lets it thrive. Curiosity is the key to knowledge, however, like everything, it needs its opposite, for curiosity without reason, is what killed the cat. In a full circle, spirit feeds famine, both need to be curious, but reason keeps the two alive, while reason uses the others to keep his wonder and love of life.
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