The World Soul in the Platonic Tradition

Abstract

This chapter explores Plato’s concept of the world soul and the ways in which the concept was developed by subsequent Platonists over the following millennium. In section 1.1, Plato’s arguments for the existence of the world soul are explored, and some of the tensions and puzzles in Plato’s account(s) are set out. Sections 1.2 and 1.3 examine two different approaches to coming to terms with these tensions, both of which involve moving away from the notion of a single monolithic world soul. Whereas Platonists such as Plutarch of Chaeronea developed a more dualistic conception of the world soul that envisioned a primitive, irrational, and evil soul giving way to the rational cosmic soul (section 1.2), Plotinus proposed a stratified conception of the world soul, with each subsequent stratum engaged in a more derivative form of contemplation than its upper neighbor and involved in a more direct form of administration of the world (section 1.3).