Plato's Immortality and the Missing Piece of the Soul

    Plato thought a body moving by its own will was evidence of its immortality. Because the soul moves the body, it is immortal and not the body itself. Only two things can move it; an outside force or an internal one. The internal soul is in perpetual motion, as its energy is neither created nor destroyed. It's a compelling argument that I never considered. Nothing moves the soul, not that we are aware of anyway. That is the only thing that could break the argument by its own logic. He also believed the soul had three parts: desire that motivates, spirit that competes, and intellect that reasons. He may have been the first personality theorist, for he believed everyone's souls are in balance among the three, creating individual personalities from different combinations. I find the idea lacking a critical symmetry. Based on the four elements, there would ideally be four essences of personality in classical terms. Desire is earth, spirit is fire, air is intellect, but what is water? Love; that is his missing piece of the soul. Which is ironic because he wrote about it so much. Love is what creates, in any context of the word. The soul creates relationships, works of art, modes of discovery, etc.; all based on its capacity to love.