Since man is either body, soul, or both together, and neither the body nor the composite can be the ruling principle, it follows that the human being is properly identified with the soul, which rules and uses the body.

By Plato, from Alcibiade

Key Arguments

  • After establishing that man is not identical with his body, Socrates gets Alcibiades to agree that ‘the user of the body is the soul’ and that ‘the soul rules.’
  • Socrates proposes that ‘man is one of three things’: ‘Soul, body, or both together forming a whole,’ and recalls that earlier they said that ‘the actual ruling principle of the body is man.’
  • He observes that ‘the body’ does not ‘rule over itself’ but is ‘subject,’ and therefore cannot be the ruling principle or man.
  • He then considers the composite ‘union of the two’ (soul and body) ruling over the body and declares this ‘The most unlikely of all things; for if one of the members is subject, the two united cannot possibly rule,’ thereby excluding the composite as the ruling principle.
  • From these eliminations, Socrates concludes: ‘since neither the body, nor the union of the two, is man, either man has no real existence, or the soul is man,’ and Alcibiades assents, saying ‘Just so.’
  • Socrates asks rhetorically whether more is required to prove this and settles that the proof is ‘quite sufficient,’ adding that ‘surely there is nothing which may be called more properly ourselves than the soul?’ and Alcibiades agrees there is ‘nothing.’

Source Quotes

ALCIBIADES: Yes. SOCRATES: And the user of the body is the soul? ALCIBIADES: Yes, the soul.
ALCIBIADES: Yes, the soul. SOCRATES: And the soul rules? ALCIBIADES: Yes.
ALCIBIADES: What is it? SOCRATES: That man is one of three things. ALCIBIADES: What are they?
ALCIBIADES: What are they? SOCRATES: Soul, body, or both together forming a whole. ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
ALCIBIADES: Yes, we did. SOCRATES: And does the body rule over itself? ALCIBIADES: Certainly not. SOCRATES: It is subject, as we were saying? ALCIBIADES: Yes.
ALCIBIADES: Very likely. SOCRATES: The most unlikely of all things; for if one of the members is subject, the two united cannot possibly rule. ALCIBIADES: True.
ALCIBIADES: True. SOCRATES: But since neither the body, nor the union of the two, is man, either man has no real existence, or the soul is man? ALCIBIADES: Just so.
ALCIBIADES: What was that? SOCRATES: What I meant, when I said that absolute existence must be first considered; but now, instead of absolute existence, we have been considering the nature of individual existence, and this may, perhaps, be sufficient; for surely there is nothing which may be called more properly ourselves than the soul? ALCIBIADES: There is nothing.

Key Concepts

  • And the user of the body is the soul?
  • And the soul rules?
  • That man is one of three things.
  • Soul, body, or both together forming a whole.
  • And does the body rule over itself? ALCIBIADES: Certainly not. SOCRATES: It is subject, as we were saying?
  • The most unlikely of all things; for if one of the members is subject, the two united cannot possibly rule.
  • either man has no real existence, or the soul is man?
  • for surely there is nothing which may be called more properly ourselves than the soul?

Context

Building on the user/instrument distinction, Socrates conducts a trichotomous analysis of man and argues by elimination that the true human being just is the soul, which rules and uses the body, not the body or the composite.