Monday, June 6, 2016

Psyche and Reason

Plato precedes Aristotle in conceiving Reason as the internal organizing principle of the Psyche.  But, while for his successor the concept is instantiated in only a personal Psyche, for Plato, a Polis, as well as its citizens individually, possesses a Psyche.  Now, Kant's innovation is to bridge the two concepts--to conceive oneself as a member of a Rational whole.  However, absent an understanding of that original intra-Psychic structure, and of Plato's dual application of it, Reason can be, and often is, e. g. in Freud's model of the Psyche, posited as confronting the Ego as a hostile alien force, i. e. as part of the Superego.

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