The Three 'Elementals' of the Soul

Now many people like me, who think that objective truth is important, express this conviction in terms of the classic distinction between intellect, will, and emotions or feelings.

 On this view, it is the intellect that knows, the will that decides, and the feelings that feel. According to Plato and others, it is important that the intellect, not the will or the feelings, should direct the course of our lives. Indeed, the other faculties ought to be subservient to the intellect, so that the intellect governs what the will decides and the emotions feel.

I think we all understand what dynamic Plato refers to here. 

Often it does seem as though these three faculties are in conflict. Sometimes we make choices that in retrospect, we agree to have been stupid; so we admit that we should have subordinated will to intellect.  Of course teenagers in love proverbially get into trouble by following their feelings rather than what they know to be true.

But there is something wrong with this picture.

 We know, certainly, that intellect, will, and emotions are not little entities fighting among themselves up in our heads, as in the Pixar film Inside Out. And in the final analysis, it is not the intellect that knows, but the person. Similarly, it is the person who chooses and the person who feels. “Intellect” is not the name for a physical organ undiscovered by medical science. It is just a name for something we do, our thinking. The intellect is the person’s thinking, the will his choosing, and the emotions his feeling.

So it is not as if each of these came to a conclusion independently and then tried to persuade or intimidate, or coax or cajole the others to go along. Nor do these faculties compete to impress their own individual or collective views on the person. Rather, the three influence one another all the time. Our thinking of course influences our willing and our feeling. We would like to believe that our choices are based on the truth, and that what we feel about something is appropriate to what that thing really is. But it’s also the case that our choices and feelings influence what we believe to be true. If I choose to root for the Australia that choice will make it easier for me to believe good things about the Aussies and bad things about their opponents. So my will affects my intellect. And if I have a warm affection for the Aussies, that emotion will also affect my beliefs and my choices.

To use a more serious example

 The apostle Paul in Romans 1:19–20 says, that God is clearly revealed in the world he has made:

 

 John M. Frame, Christianity Considered: A Guide for Skeptics and Seekers