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In Pre-Socratic Philosophy

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In Pre-Socratic Philosophy ETHOS: Felsefe ve Toplumsal Bilimlerde Diyaloglar ETHOS: Dialogues in Philosophy and Social Sciences Ocak/January 2016, 9(1), 14-27 ISSN 1309-1328 EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF “PSYCHĒ” IN PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY [Sokrates Öncesi Felsefede “Ruh (Psyche)” Kavramının Evrimi] Ahmet Emre Demirci Doç. Dr., Anadolu Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, İşletme Bölümü [email protected] ABSTRACT Psychē (soul) is one of the key concepts in Ancient Greek philosophy. Starting from the Homeric beginnings, the soul and the immortality of soul had been a significant question giving rise to many debates, and the essence of soul had been a fundamental research topic for philosophers both before and after Socrates. This essay provides the readers with a summary of how a variety of thoughts flourished on soul through reference to exemplary pre-Socratic philosophers, and, by doing so, aims to show that the concept of psychē has undergone an evolution throughout the philosophical- scientific path followed in the ancient Greek thought. Keywords: Soul, psychē, pre-Socratic philosophers, ancient Greek philosophy. ÖZET Ruh (Psychē) Antic Yunan felsefesi içerisinde ele alınan temel konulardan biridir. Homeros geleneklerinden başlayarak ruh ve ruhun ölümsüzlüğü önemli tartışmalara neden olan önemli sorulardan biri olmuştur. Ayrıca ruh kavramının özü, gerek Sokrates öncesi gerekse de Sokrates sonrası filozoflar için temel bir araştırma konusu olmuştur. Bu çalışma, Sokrates öncesi dönemin önde gelen filozoflarının ruh konusunda sahip oldukları farklılaşan görüşlerini okuyucu ile 14 ETHOS: Felsefe ve Toplumsal Bilimlerde Diyaloglar ETHOS: Dialogues in Philosophy and Social Sciences Ocak/January 2016, 9(1), 14-27 ISSN 1309-1328 buluşturmayı hedeflemektedir. Böylece ruh kavramının felsefi ve bilimsel bir rota üzerinde geçirdiği evrim gösterilmeye çalışılacaktır. Anahtar Sözcükler: Ruh, tin, Sokrates öncesi filozoflar, Antik Yunan felsefesi. According to the early Greek philosophical texts, immortality is an absolute feature of divinity attributed to gods. Human beings are basically called as “mortals”. Although this categorization based on the mortality and immortality of the physical body is clear, whether the soul is mortal has been an unsettled issue in philosophy. Before we start investigating the immortality of soul in ancient Greek philosophy, it is important to analyze the ancient philosophical theories of soul. Homeric Beginnings on the Soul From comparatively humble Homeric beginnings, the word ‘soul’ undergoes quite remarkable semantic expansion in sixth and fifth century usage. By the end of the fifth century — the time of Socrates' death — soul is standardly thought and spoken of, for instance, as the distinguishing mark of living things, as something that is the subject of emotional states and that is responsible for planning and practical thinking, and also as the bearer of such virtues as courage and justice. Coming to philosophical theory, we first trace a development towards comprehensive articulation of a very broad conception of soul, according to which the soul is not only responsible for mental or psychological functions like thought, perception and desire, and is the bearer of moral qualities, but in some way or other accounts for all the vital functions that any living organism performs (Lorenz, 2009). As mentioned above, soul as a problem has come to light with Homer. In the first sentence of the Iliad, Homer urges an unnamed goddess to sing of the mēnis of Achilles, a wrath that sent many worth souls – psuchai – to Hades. Although psuchē here does not directly refer to “soul”; it is widely accepted that it refers to something like “the breath of life” (Davis, 2011). Snell (2012) suggests that Greeks of Homer did not have the cognizance of the psychic whole, or of any notion that corresponds to our word “Soul”. Homer distinguishes between a free soul, corresponding with psychē, and body souls, corresponding with thymós, nóos, and ménos. The passages in Homer reveal that without psychē, one cannot survive. The psychē leaves the body during swoons and it 15 ETHOS: Felsefe ve Toplumsal Bilimlerde Diyaloglar ETHOS: Dialogues in Philosophy and Social Sciences Ocak/January 2016, 9(1), 14-27 ISSN 1309-1328 leaves forever and departs to Hades when a person dies. From this standpoint, psychē is closely linked with aiōn, or in other words, the source of vitality. However, according to Homer, aiōn is only possessed by the young while psychē does not differentiate between young and elderly. In contrast with the free souls, body souls are active during the waking life of the living person. Arbman suggests that the body souls are usually divided into two parts: the life soul which is generally identified with the breath and the ego soul (Bremmer, 1987). The former classification could be clarified through the etymology of the word breath in ancient Greek. Psychē (ψυχή) is both breath and soul in ancient Greek, and for poets “the existential dimension of breathing” cannot be underestimated as it is considered to be the “necessity of life” (Shopin, 2014). Other authors note that there are three words referring to some form of “breath” in ancient Greek: pneûma, meaning air, breath of life, vital spirit, soul, or innate heat; psychē, defined as breath of life, spirit, soul, and later, mind; and finally ánemos, meaning “breath,” lent itself to Latin’s “anima,” from which “animal” was later derived, and which means breath or soul (Mazzolini, 2009). The latter part which is defined as the ego soul could be treated as a soul that imbues a person with life and consciousness, or, in modern terminology, with “ego” or the “self” (Abusch, 1998). While psychē that is defining the free soul did not have any physical or psychological qualities participating in the consciousness of the living individual; consciousness, will, emotions, thought, perception and etc. were taken care of by body soul. Thus, according to Homeric world-view, in addition to having an eschatological soul, individual also had body souls which were necessary parts of an individual as a living being. Those parts were thymós (breath, spirit), nóos (mind, thought) and ménos (spirit, temper) as mentioned earlier. Among these parts, we can suggest that the most frequently occurred form of the ego soul in the Homeric epic is thymós - a form which is active only when the body is awake. Thymós is the source of all emotions (Sörbom, 1994). If it is said that a person feels something in his thymós, the reference is to an organ which may translate as “soul” provided that the soul is the seat of (e)motions. However, we should keep in mind that it also serves as the name of a function that could be rendered as “will” or “character” (Snell, 2012). About the other parts, as mentioned above, nóos refers to consciousness in a more intellectual direction and finally ménos is impulses to act (Sörbom, 1994). Bremmer (1987) also suggests that Greek’s belief in soul is not unitary. Thus, their belief is best characterized as multiple. It was not until the archaic age that the unitary soul was found in Greek soul belief. Bremmer (1987) further claims: After the end of that century (refers to the fifth century) there is no longer the whole complex of the dualistic concept of the soul: a free soul 16 ETHOS: Felsefe ve Toplumsal Bilimlerde Diyaloglar ETHOS: Dialogues in Philosophy and Social Sciences Ocak/January 2016, 9(1), 14-27 ISSN 1309-1328 representing the individuality in sleep, swoons, and trance without any contact with the ego souls, thymós, nóos, and ménos. As discussed above, early Greek poets and dramatists were highly occupied with soul. Although their concept of soul was not perfectly matching that of the modern world, it is necessary to be acquainted with their concept of “soul” in order to take further steps in time to understand soul in ancient Greek philosophy. Because it is evident that soul was not less important for philosophers as it was the theme for many early philosophical texts and discussions. Thales and Soul Before we start going into the immortality of the soul according to the pre-Socratic philosophers, it is necessary to investigate how they define “soul”. From this standpoint, Thales can be the starting point for our investigation as he is considered to be the first Greek physikos (natural philosopher), the first to have revealed the investigation of nature to the Greeks. According to Aristotle, Thales is the “founder of this philosophy” and he called Thales the “the first wise man” (Vamvacas, 2009). Thales believed that a magnet possesses a soul as it is capable of moving iron (Aristotle, De Anima, 405-a19). Above all, Thales considered the power of magnet as an obvious manifestation of a divine animating force that could be attributed to all things. Aristotle adds furthermore: “Certain thinkers say that soul is intermingled in the whole universe, and it is perhaps for that reason that Thales came to the opinion that all things are full of gods” (Aristotle, De Anima, 411-a7). It is also important to express that according to some traditions, Thales first declared souls to be immortal, asserted that all things are full of gods. These claims clearly reveal that Thales seems to believe that there is soul pervading the universe. Cicero comments: Thales of Miletus, who was the first to investigate these questions, said that water was the first principle substance, god being the mind which fashioned everything out of water. It is clear that Thales had sought an explanation of self-motion, and so he had supposed that the soul to be the source of it. It is most likely that Thales had meant that there was a unitary cosmic intelligence when he suggested that the soul pervaded the universe. Based on these arguments, it could be suggested that the soul here would not be something separate or independent from water, but would be an aspect or quality of water (Gregory, 2013).
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