The Tripartite Theory

Paper Summary:

This paper compares and contrasts the political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. The paper explains Plato's philosophy, which stated that there were three classes of the state because the human soul had three parts: A calculating part, a warlike or angry part, and a desiring or striving part. The paper states that the tripartite city corresponded to the tripartite soul. Aristotelian theory is presented in contrast, illustrating that the soul was a unified whole with many parts.

From the Paper:

"Because of the American tendency to bifurcate conceptions of morality and the soul from political structures, it can be at times difficult to grasp the political philosophy of Plato, whereby the nature of the human soul and Plato's ideal political "Republic" are integrally related. For Plato the human soul was merely the state writ small. Both had the same inherent structure or form. "The just man will not be any different from the just city with respect to the form itself of justice, but will be like it" (The Republic, 435b)."

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