Panel Title
Political images of the soul
Location
Salle Jean Ladrière, Collège Mercier, Place Cardinal Mercier 14, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Start Date
2-14-2014 2:30 PM
End Date
2-14-2014 3:15 PM
Abstract
Folk psychology has traditionally used spatial images to represent the soul, whether dealing with actions, motivations, or other events, e.g. death, and we are naturally inclined to think that these folk images must have bearing on the soul’s nature. But the shift from ordinary language or myths to what the soul really is must be taken very cautiously. This paper examines the use of spatial images and metaphors that compare the soul to a city, especially in the Republic, the Timaeus and in the Laws. It will be argued that the metaphors aims at drawing up a topology as a means of representing the ordering of one’s soul in a given political society, fulfilling the scope of the city-soul analogy. Political images of the soul are understood as a means of going beyond a mere isomorphism between psychology and politics, explaining how the two fields interacts to convey the idea that politics can assuredly acts upon the individual soul, and reciprocally.
Political images of the soul
Salle Jean Ladrière, Collège Mercier, Place Cardinal Mercier 14, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Folk psychology has traditionally used spatial images to represent the soul, whether dealing with actions, motivations, or other events, e.g. death, and we are naturally inclined to think that these folk images must have bearing on the soul’s nature. But the shift from ordinary language or myths to what the soul really is must be taken very cautiously. This paper examines the use of spatial images and metaphors that compare the soul to a city, especially in the Republic, the Timaeus and in the Laws. It will be argued that the metaphors aims at drawing up a topology as a means of representing the ordering of one’s soul in a given political society, fulfilling the scope of the city-soul analogy. Political images of the soul are understood as a means of going beyond a mere isomorphism between psychology and politics, explaining how the two fields interacts to convey the idea that politics can assuredly acts upon the individual soul, and reciprocally.