Plato’s Concept Of Soul And Its Modern Implication

Since ancient times,"soul" is always the complex issue of wide concern. Throughout the history of philosophy, many philosophers have the soul as an important content of study. Development so far,"soul" issues into "mind". A large number of social and natural scientists involved in the research, formed many kinds of "philosophy of mind".In a large number of "soul" philosopher, Plato is one of the important founders undoubtedly. He made a unique explanation different from others, specifically manifested in the:(a) Plato believed that the soul is immortal spirit transcend time and space independent entity. It is the bridge of communication between the material world and the concept world. It also has the characteristics of rational and active moral standard, so it is the life movement principle.(b) Plato developed a relatively complete theoretical system of the soul,which including the essence and characteristics of the soul, the composition and classification of the soul, the rule and immortality and the function and purification of the soul.(c) Plato opened a new way to study the soul, making the soul more rational. So that the whole western philosophy are surrounded in the "rational" rule, moving forward along with the two research directions——the "truth" and the "goodness".This paper was based on the Marx doctrine. Through interpreted of the original works of Plato and his related works, the writer was trying to clarify the original thoughts of Plato’s concept of soul,and to tease out its theory system. This paper also want to excavate and explore the spiritual essence and the modern implication of Plato’s concept of soul, in order to reveal the reference and inspiration about the contemporary human spirit, the consciousness and the matter of life and death. This work can promote the enrichment and development of Marxist philosophy.The thesis has six parts:The first part is the introduction. In this section, the writer introduced the reason of the study, the significance and current situation of the study, the research innovation and research methods.The second part is the historical backgrounds of Plato’s concept of soul. This section discussed the ancient Greek mythology, Orphism, Pythagoras and Socrates’s concept of soul.The third part is the basic contents of Plato’s concept of soul. This section systematically elaborated the basic contents of Plato’s concept of soul,which including four parts:the essence and characteristics of the soul, the composition and classification of the soul, the rule and immortality and the function and purification of the soul.The fourth part is the essence of Plato’s concept of soul. This part focused on analyzing dialectically and evaluating objectively of Plato’s concept of soul, then revealing its humanistic care value and the inevitable limitations, in order to grasp the essence of the idealist concept of soul fully.The fifth part is the modern implication of Plato’s concept of soul. This part aimed to clarify the modern value of Plato’s concept of soul. From the perspective of philosophy of mind, humanism and the philosophy of death to excavate the modern implication of Plato’s concept of soul, and to explore the inspiration on the development of Marx’s philosophy.The sixth part is the conclusion. In this section, the author reiterated the theoretical value and limitations of Plato’s concept of soul, made a summary of this research work and the imperfect places.