The origin of Plato s dualism is in the war-based character of Greek society. The dominant classes of Greek culture could only maintain their society through war and domination. If an elite male were to live the life of the master , his ability to lead a life above slavish necessity depended on war. Life, therefore, could not be valued for itself. Instead the order of society that transcended individual human existence was accorded the highest value.
Platonic theory is a justification for the valorization of death over life .
This type of thinking has led to an existential homelessness in western thought, an alienated account of human identity in which human are essentially apart from or outside of nature, having no true home in it or allegiance to it. What was distinctive about humanity, he argued, was the existence of mind. As nothing else in existence possesses mind, the natural world, including the human body and animate life, is seen as an inert object to be controlled and manipulated. All agencies are denied to the natural world, so that nature has no originative power within itself. The objective self as implicitly masculine, with the separation of the masculine mind not only from female body but also from all other forms of animate life, including the mind s own body.