1001Philosophers

Friedrich Nietzsche vs Plato on Mind

For Plato, the well-ordered mind is the soul whose rational part rules over the spirited and appetitive parts and ascends toward the Forms. Nietzsche regards this ranking as itself a symptom of decadence — the tyranny of reason over the affects, dressed up as the ordering of the soul. Where the Platonic mind aspires to the eternal, the Nietzschean philosopher analyzes such aspirations as the disguised expression of life conditions and ranks of power.

About this topic

Philosophy of mind asks what mental states are, how they relate to bodies and brains, and how thought, perception, and feeling are possible at all. Classical sources from Plato through Descartes treated the mind as a distinct substance, while later philosophers proposed varieties of materialism, functionalism, and emergentism in its place. Phenomenologists in the twentieth century turned attention to consciousness as it is lived from the inside. Contemporary philosophy of mind works in close dialogue with cognitive science.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Friedrich Nietzsche vs Plato comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the the Mind quotes hub.

Representative quotes on mind

Friedrich Nietzsche on mind

  • Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche:

    “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

  • Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche:

    “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”

  • Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche:

    “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

  • Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche:

    “The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”

Plato on mind

  • “Philosophy begins in wonder.”

    155d, The Dialogues of Plato , Volume 3, 1871, p. 377

  • “Some say that the body is the " tomb " of the soul , their notion being that the soul is buried in the present life ; and again, because by its means the soul gives any signs which it gives, it is for this reason also properly called "sign". But I think it most likely that the Orphic poets gave this name, with the idea that the soul is undergoing punishment for something; they think it has the body as an enclosure to keep it safe, like a prison, and this is, as the name itself denotes, the "safe" for the soul, until the penalty is paid, and not even a letter needs to be changed.”

    400b–c

  • “Perception and knowledge could never be the same.”

    186e

  • “Neither perception nor true opinion, nor reason or explanation combined with true opinion could be knowledge… Then our art of midwifery declare to us that all the offspring that have been born are mere wind-eggs and not worth rearing… and if you remain barren, you will be less harsh and gentler to your associates, for you will have the wisdom not to think you know that which you do not know.”

    210a-c

  • “I do see one large and grievous kind of ignorance, separate from the rest, and as weighty as all the other parts put together. Thinking that one knows a thing when one does not know it. Through this, I believe, all the mistakes of the mind are caused in all of us.”

    229c

All 8 Plato quotes on mind →

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