On The Tripartite Soul

Plato claims there are three realms of human desiring: mind, heart, and stomach. The mind knows, the heart feels, the stomach yearns.

The mind is the least strong of all three. It has the least power. In and of itself, knowing rarely leads to action. Knowing must usually be paired with feeling and yearning. Apart from the efforts of the heart, the stomach will almost always triumph over the mind. In other words, we must not only know what is right in order to do what is right. We must both know and love what is right in order to do it.

All of these claims are commonly traded. I will add this, though:

Given it is weakest, the mind is also easiest to control. We may think about whatever we want to think about. We may change our thoughts instantly. We may of cars, then trucks, then coffee, then scissors in quick succession.

We cannot move from feeling to feeling so easily. Feelings are much harder to change, though they can be changed. If a man wants to feel sad, he may do so with great effort.

And yet changing our desires is very, very difficult. If a man is hungry, it is nearly impossible for him to decide he does not want food. If a man is tired, he must feel tired. Nothing changes with greater difficulty than the stomach.