Chariot Allegory

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Plato, in Phaedrus (dialogue), uses the Chariot Allegory to explain his view of the human soul. He does this in the play through the character of Socrates.

Plato paints the picture in our heads of a charioteer driving a chariot pulled by two horses. One horse is white and long necked, well bred, well behaved and runs without the touch of a whip. The other is black and short-necked, badly bred, troublesome and needs the whip laid on hard to make it behave. The Charioteer represents the SOUL, the white horse - the MIND and the black horse, the BODY. The mind wants to find the truth, but the body wants to follow carnal pleasures and unimportant distractions of the physical world. The soul, the charioteer, drives the body and mind, trying to stop them going different ways and drive them towards enlightenment, the Good.

Plato does not see the human soul as a sort of patchwork of emotions and concepts; this differs from the views of many philosophers of the time period. Instead he views the soul as a sort of composite, in which many different elements blend together and affect each other.

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