I. The Tripartite Soul
In our upcoming January circular, we print and examine the "Chariot of the Soul" passage from Plato's Phaedrus. To prepare for this, it is necessary to examine how Plato modeled the internal division of the human mind. Plato depicts the soul as a composite force: a pair of winged horses and a charioteer.
The two horses are of opposite characters. The white horse is noble, upright, and directed toward honor, temperance, and truth; it obeys the word of command alone. The black horse is hot-blooded, misshapen, and driven by raw, animal impulse; it resists the whip and seeks only immediate, physical satisfaction. The charioteer represents the human reason, charged with managing this discordant team and steering the chariot toward the heavens.
Plato's model is not one of simple repression. The horses provide the raw power (the wings) necessary to lift the soul; without their energy, the charioteer remains frozen on the earth.
II. Babbitt's Critique: The Rein of the Will
Irving Babbitt, in his classicist ethics, focuses on the role of the charioteer as the symbol of the human ethical will (what he calls the inner check or frein vital). Babbitt warns that modern romanticism has attempted to cut the reins, celebrating the raw impulse of the black horse as "authenticity" and "nature."
If the charioteer surrenders control to the horses, the chariot collapses. Babbitt argues that the classicist task is not to eliminate the horses' energy, but to guide them through the active restraint of the will. Reason alone is not enough; it must be backed by the physical, conscious habit of self-control, holding the reins tight against the pull of immediate desire.
If the black horse is always whipped and restrained, do we not lose the creative energy of passion? Is not great art born from the wild, unbridled pull of the black horse?
[Reply]Passion is the fuel, but the will is the steering wheel. A car without a wheel is just a bomb. True creativity is not wild impulse; it is the immense energy of the horses shaped by the precision of the reins.
III. The Application: The Automated Chariot
This January, we will apply Plato's metaphor to the modern outsourcing of our ethical will. We live in an era of the "automated chariot." We have surrendered the reins of our attention, our choices, and our values to algorithms designed to feed the impulses of our black horse, maximizing our immediate sensory consumption.
This is a complete abdication of the charioteer. We no longer hold the reins; we let the feed steer us. The Socratic discipline of these readings is an attempt to retake the reins, silencing our devices and practicing the active, difficult self-control required to guide our own souls.
The notification systems of modern devices are designed to trigger the black horse's reflexes, bypassing the charioteer's reason to capture our attention before we can decide.
From Plato's Phaedrus:
"Of the nature of the soul, though her true form be ever a theme of large and more than mortal discourse, let me speak briefly, and in a figure. And let the figure be composite—a pair of winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent, but those of other races are mixed... the human charioteer drives his in a pair; and one of them is noble and of noble breed, and the other is ignoble and of ignoble breed; and the driving of them of necessity gives a great deal of trouble to him."