The behavior of the soul according to the talkic allegory of the winged car
The behavior of the soul according to the Platonic allegory of the Alado Human Alado car is one of the main topics of Platonic philosophy (and of philosophy in general), treated mainly in the fedon (φαίδων). However, given the importance of the subject, Plato addresses it in several of his dialogues, between the fedro (φαίδρος);There he introduces the myth or allegory of the winged car .
At the end of the myth, Plato (putting his words in the mouth of Socrates) compares the soul with a car. Just as the soul has divided into three parts, the car has three subjects on which its movement depends: two winged horses and its auriga.
The first horse is white, “of erect plant and fine rowing, of haughty cerviz, snout, […] of black eyes, lover of glory in moderation and pundonor, follower of true opinion and, without whip,docile to voice and word " . The second horse is black, “counterweight, large, of rough joints, of thick and short neck, with flattened testuz, […] gray eyes, burning blood, companion of excesses and petulances, of hairy ears, deaf, barely obedient to the whipand the Acycates " . It will be necessary for the dawn to control both to start the car.
This allegory explains with great precision what happens to the human being. Even those who deny the existence of the soul, must recognize the presence of the three actors in psychological processes. But in Platonic terms, the white horse can identify with the Irascible soul, the black horse with the concupiscible soul, and the Auriga with the rational soul. On the feelings and good intentions that the white horse represents, the virtue of the fortress must prevail, understood as courage, courage (ανδρεία). The instincts and passions of the black horse must be dominated by temperance (σωφροσύνη). The reason for the auriga must be governed by prudence (φρόνησις).
That the human soul behaves in such a way, and must be governed by the aforementioned principles, it is not an idea that has gone out of fashion. Rather, Christianity recovered it and remains in force. Saint Paul says something similar in his letter to the Romans: “And so, I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I do not want. But when I do what I do not want, it is not me who does it, but the sin that resides in me. […] Thank God, for Jesus Christ, our Lord! In a word, with my heart I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin ” . The black horse is now sin, which governs the flesh. And both the white horse and the auriga are the law of God, the good, whose domain is the heart.
The Theatine Lorenzo Scoupoli, in spiritual combat, made a reference to Fedro, although not very accurate:
"The four horses. An ancient author said that the human person travels around this world in a carriage carried by four horses. Two whites and two blacks. The two white are reason and will. And the two blacks are passions and bad inclinations. And to know where each one will get to find out who we let go to the helm, to God or the devil, or selfishness. If it is God who directs us with his holy inspirations, the end will be eternal glory and holiness. But if we let it be the devil with his temptations who is guiding, the end will be evil and even the eternal condemnation ."
Similarly, the white horse and the auriga are identified. The black horse is still the bad. Previously, I had already called them by other names: superior will and sensitive appetite, respectively:
“In each of us there are two great forces that make war incessantly. The one is the superior will, the spiritual force, which guided by reason and for faith wants us to have behaviors of a rational being, of someone who is the son of God, and whose destiny is the eternal life of heaven. The other great force, which is called lower, is a material force, guided by passions, by the inclinations of carnal nature, and many times for the attractions of the mundane, sensual and by the temptations of the demon. This second force, called ‘sensitive appetite’, will not be able to bring us to evil if the will guided by reason and illuminated by the Holy Spirit puts brake, dominates him and guides ” .
If there is a difference between the superior will, the reason, and the Irascible Soul, or if they are the same, it is an issue for another occasion. What nobody can doubt is the interests found in the elective act that happens within the human being.
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