Socrates Psychic Harmony Is The Greatest Good

Essay, Research Paper

Socrates: Psychic Harmony Is The Greatest Good

Erika Hall

516-78-2200

Philosophy 120

Socrates believes that psychic harmony is the greatest good, and that

the result of it is moral (rational) behavior. He also believes that if you

have a healthy body and soul then you are in psychic harmony with yourself. He

says that this is good intrinsically and instrumentally. Which means that it is

good for its own sake and the sake of the consequences. Therefore, immoral

behavior is a result of an unbalanced personality and leads to irrational

behavior. Psychic harmony is a psychological condition and makes one moral,

which according to Socrates is a social condition. Psychic harmony has no

motivation. You either have it or you don’t. Moral behavior comes from your

own beliefs and desires. If one is bad or unjust in the social sense it is

because of their sensuality, greed, or vanity. This is because of a disordered

psychological condition. According to Socrates where there is “psychic

harmony,” the motives for injustice in the social sense will be eliminated.

I believe that Socrates is correct. If you are at peace with yourself

you are also morally right towards society. Those that aren’t are usually

immoral and don’t do what is considered right by others. I do not think it is

possible to be in psychic harmony and yet act immoral. It may be possible,

however, that if one is immoral, and wishes to be moral, they could learn to be

in psychic harmony if they really wanted it.