Best Answer
Reason, appetite, and spirit are three concepts that you will find throughout Western versions of philosophy. Understanding what they mean can be critical to understanding the core concepts of many philosophers. However, it is important to understand that general meanings are only general meanings. Each philosopher can define them slightly differently in their philosophical framework. So, it is critical to examine each concept within the context of the philosopher that you are studying because their personal interpretations can critically alter the meanings of these three core concepts.
Spirit has multiple meanings in modern philosophy. It can stand for the mind of consciousness. In that way, spirit can be the foundational cornerstone of philosophy because understanding spirit gets to the core of understanding philosophy. It can also refer to the idea of the philosophy of spirit, which means the construction of a philosophical system based on rationalism.
Appetite in philosophy refers to what is known as the natural appetite. It has nothing to do with hunger. Instead, appetite refers to what is good for a person as an individual and for the species as a whole. The two appetites can conflict at times, but should generally align. This can be an extremely difficult concept to understand since humans can observe things like drug addiction which are neither beneficial for the individual nor beneficial to society as a whole.
Reason in philosophy refers to the idea of logic. It involves being able to take concrete facts or ideas and to use them to come to conclusions that are based on those facts. It goes beyond learning or operant conditioning because the concept of reason incorporates the ability to abstract, and not just the ability to learn or to mimic.
