| （Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences，University of Hiroshima，Higashi-Hiroshima，Japan 739-8521） Abstract: This paper aims to clarify Plato’s view of soma through consideration of the fundamental characters of soma in Plato’s later dialogues. Soma, which had a very large extension in classical Greek, denotes not only the hu-man body but also the elemental bodies (fire, water, air, earth), the corpse, the cosmic body, the celestial body, the animal body, etc, and there also lies such a large extension in the background of the Plato’s view of the human body.According to Laws, Plato’s last work, soma has three common characters: spaciality, movability and sensibil-ity, and takes on a different aspect from the body in the present age. Firstly, the spaciality of soma is the likeness of Form, which is copied into chora (the place of plenum), and it is the solid, which is geometrically formed by fol-lowing Form. Secondly, the movability of soma is originally motion by others or disorderly and dotted linear mo-tion, which is necessarily caused by the accidental collision between the particles, but in connection with Soul and Reason it becomes a pseudo-autonomous and orderly circular motion. Thirdly, the sensibility of soma is pathema (accidental affection), which is based on the multiplicity in the geometrical structures of the particles. Pathema in-jures Soul and soma when it is left to Chance and Ignorance, but in the control of Reason it contributes to the reali-zation of the good and the restoration of the order.Since soma, which has close connections to Soul, Reason and Form, is represented as such a subordinate and necessarily conditional existence in Plato’s later dialogues, the hu-man body, which is also called soma, should be considered on the basis of the above mentioned fundamental char-acters.
Key words: philosophy；soma；physical education；Plato |
