Soul and Justice in the works of Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus Essay

Soul and Justice in the works of Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus - Essay Example This essay discusses that Plato (428-347 BC) defined the soul’s parts as appetite, spirit, and reason. A just society would also have this structure: the productive (worker) class (appetite part of the soul); the protective (warrior) class (spirit part of the soul); and the governing (ruling) class (reason part of the soul). Individual justice would consist of the appetite part of the soul obeying the reason part, with the aid of the spirit part of the soul. Any deviation from this order would result in an unjust individual or society. Justice to Plato meant harmony with each fulfilling his role. Plato’s ideal city was meant as a model for an individual to set up the government of their soul. Aristotle (384-322 BC), a student of Plato, presents his theory of the soul in â€Å"De Anima†. Soul is the incorporeal essence or life-force of a living thing, inseparable from the body and existing as the cause of the body’s movement and of its end. Souls have diffe rent parts that different kinds of souls may contain. Plants have souls providing them with nourishment and reproduction. Animals have souls that also enable motion and differing numbers of senses. Humans have all this plus rational soul, which has two parts: the possible intellect, holding all the possible thoughts; and the agent intellect, bringing actual thoughts into act. The mind (agent intellect part of the soul) is immaterial and cannot be corrupted; therefore the mind is immortal. Justice to Aristotle was a character trait or virtue (Aristotle, trans. 1934, Book V). Just people are those who seek their fair share and follow the law. Aristotle distinguished between two types of justice: distributive justice, where resources must be distributed equally; and rectificatory justice, where personal transactions must be fair and equal. Whereas Plato based his ideas of justice on the ideal city and good, Aristotle viewed justice more practically as being equality in transactions. Pl ato offered us one ideal vision of a perfect city and justice; in contrast, Aristotle thought some rules of justice were ordained by nature, but those made by men varied between places. Both Aristotle and Plato viewed justice as harmony in societal interactions. Epicurus (341-270 BC) takes the soul and everything except the void to be made of atoms moving in an infinite universe. His â€Å"Letter to Herodotus† (Epicurus, trans. 1996) explains mental function as a result of movement of specialized neural atoms. The soul is corporeal; nothing is incorporeal except empty space. Epicurus taught that the soul ends with death of the body and no longer has sentience. To Epicurus, justice is an agreement to neither harm nor be harmed, an agreement that people deem useful. Usefulness,

CASE STUDY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

CASE STUDY - Essay Example The business’ vision to be the most consumer-centric business in its industry reflects how Amazon continues to develop strategies, both corporate-level and business-level, to ensure that it fulfils these promises for focus on providing value to its many diverse markets. One method of promoting this value and convenience is the recent program entitled Frustration-Free Packaging, which was designed to ensure consumers could easily remove their products from Amazon’s packaging. Cloud computing, additionally, provides its developer customers with low-cost IT services and the ability to outsource many business functions for further cost-savings. The continual development of new services, such as the MP3 Music Store, IMDb.com allowing for television program viewing, and launch of the Office Supplies Store in 2008, illustrates the constant evolution of the business model that caters to a wide variety of target markets with varying needs. Innovation, as compared to competition, is what makes this business model difficult to replicate by rivals and secures the promises of being consumer-centric that makes up the foundation of corporate strategy. Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, is a firm believer in corporate frugality. In the company’s headquarters, this thrift is evident with employee desks that have been recycled from doors, at an estimated cost of $130 USD and monitors that rest on telephone books to avoid the high costs of stands (University of Graz 2013). Amazon maintains very powerful competitive advantage as it relates to human capital, having established a firm set of values and a shared vision that allows for decentralised business function for better teamwork and interpersonal relationship development. In order to develop the appropriate service culture necessary for Amazon to achieve its mission of consumer-centrism, the organisation must have leadership that