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Socrates's Existence

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Socrates makes the assertion that the soul is an immortal entity that survives through many generations and bodies. He explains that there is the visible and the invisible realms in life. The visible realm is everything that we can see, in which things exist that take forms. In the visible realm, there may be a bundle of equal sized sticks, that take the form of equality. When you see the bundle, you see that it looks equal. But, someone else may not see those sticks as equal, and therefore the visible realm is imperfect. The visible realm is ever changing, and can be perceived differently by all who experience it. The invisible on the other hand, is where the forms exist. A form is the true identity of things, like equality for example. When…show more content…
In this explanation, Socrates says that an object without any attributes can acquire “loose” properties by coming into contact with something bearing those properties. There are three basic elements in this situation- an attribute, a bearer, and an object. The attribute is the thing that the bearer gives to the object. The bearer will always possess the attribute that it is passing on. The object does not have an innate attribute, and therefore is considered static or changing. An object that is not essentially in a form cannot be considered a bearer, because a bearer always possesses the attributes it has, without…show more content…
If the fire is put out, it no longer takes the form of hot, and therefore can no longer be considered a fire. Fire is an example of a bearer, because a fire is always going to have the attribute of hotness, no matter what, and once it loses that hotness attribute, it has changed and can no longer be called the same thing. If someone were to throw a bar of solid gold into a fire, that bar of gold will go from being room temperature to taking the form of hot. This bar of gold is not innately hot, but once it comes into contact with the fire, or the bearer, it takes the form temporarily. If that same person were to scoop the gold out of the fire and throw it into a bucket of ice, that gold would quickly shift from the form of hot to the form of cold. The bar of gold is a changing object, and takes the attributes of any bearer it comes into contact
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