The Soul Stays the Same in Plato

Plato's final argument in Phaedo for the immortality of the soul is one of the most interesting topics of all time. It goes hand to hand with the application of the theory of forms to the question of the soul's immortality, as Plato constantly reminds us, the theory of forms is the most certain of all his theories. The Phaedo is Plato’s attempt to convince us of the immortality of the soul by using several main arguments. These include the argument of forms and the law of opposites. In the final passage of the Phaedo, Plato provides his final proof, although it may be his last attempt to give his reasoning, it is not very convincing. Plato has some good points and reasoning to believe in the immortality of the soul, but his arguments often

In the Republic, Plato has Socrates argue that the soul is not simple, rather, its complex and composed of parts. He makes this assertion by first claiming that: “The same thing cannot undergo contraries at the same time, in the same respect, and within the same part.”. For example, something cannot be hot and cold or good and evil at the same time. Socrates posits this as the crux of his argument“let us proceed on this assumption, with the understanding that, if we ever come to think otherwise, all the consequences based upon it will fall to the ground.”(pg. 673). Assuming premise one is sound Socrates posits premise two: “The human psyche undergoes contraries at the same time, and in the same respect.”. This claim references internal conflicts

Plato’s theory of the simplicity of the soul is seen in the Phaedo. Through the mouthpiece of Socrates, Plato argues for a simple soul which only has one true aim. He states that the soul only seeks truth and that all other senses and experiences are merely distractions through the soul being embodied ‘the soul reasons best when none of these senses troubles it, neither hearing nor sight, nor pain nor pleasure, but when it is most by itself, taking leave of the body and as far as possible having no contact or association with it in its search for reality.’ (Plato, 1997, §65c). The simple soul can only aim to grasp the truth of reality which it gets closer to as man becomes closer to death. This is why, in Plato’s opinion, a philosopher in particular can

In the Phaedo, Plato presents a conversation between Socrates and two of his interlocutors, Simmias and Cebes, as they discuss the immortality of the soul during Socrates’ last hours before his death in the jail at Athens. At 70a, Cebes offers his worry that upon death the soul “…is destroyed and dissolved…and is dispersed like breath or smoke.” The rest of the dialogue consists of a debate between the three men as they consider the form and indissolubility of the soul. In this paper I will show that though Socrates’s position does not definitively explain his claims about the soul’s immortality, which he lays out in the Resemblance Argument, he does successfully respond to Simmias’ Lyre Objection, which itself offers a reasonable but still not infallible objection to Socrates’ original argument.

Socrates’ argument for why the soul is analogous to the city begins with an observation--that the city is comprised of individuals. The city is therefore a reflection of the characteristics of the individual. This observation allows Socrates to derive the characteristics of an individual from the characteristics of the city that had previously been discussed and established. However, this task is more difficult than it seems at first because of the differences between the soul and the city.

In the Phaedo, Socrates proposes that the soul is immortal. Despite being a seemingly counterintuitive understanding, Socrates offers arguments for the soul’s immortality and expresses his view between the soul, or mind, and the body. Socrates practices reasoning to establish his philosophy on the concept of the soul and all that it necessitates. He rationalizes four theories of the immortality of the soul. The four arguments he establishes are; the opposites argument, also referred to as the cyclical argument, this theory indicates that there is a continuous cycle of life and death, and tries to explain that all forms obtained are eternal and fixed. The second argument is the theory of recollection; this concept suggests that all learning entails remembering knowledge that was already known. The third theory is the argument from affinity; this argument demonstrates that the soul most resembles all of that which is indistinguishable and everlasting and the body echoes that which is perceptible and finite. And though the body may be understood to exist after demise in the form of a corpse by reason of the body’s impermanence, the soul being divine in sequence will outlast the body. The concluding argument is the argument from form of life, this final argument describes that all things participate in the forms. The argument entails that the soul participates in the form of life, so

He questions if the soul decays in the same way the body does after death. Socrates explains that somebody with a pure soul would pass into the afterlife with no problems, but that the reality for most men is that their souls carry along some of their bodily temptations. This weighs down the soul and drags it back to the Earth making a phantom like apparition. These are the souls of immoral men who are forced to carry the burden of lingering on Earth as a punishment for the poor lives they lived. Regardless, the soul, at this point, should be considered immortal and that it will not break apart upon entering the afterlife, nor be blown away in the

Never explaining the souls initial state of existence or how it got there. For this reason, the argument of Opposites is not strong enough to uphold Plato’s claim of an immortal

Say someone has been on life support and has been brain dead and then suddenly wakes up, they would have been coming back to life meaning that they were dead since dead is the opposite of life. Cebes also states that the soul must come from the underworld because Socrates tells him that “living creatures and things come to be from the dead”… (71e) This can prove that the soul is immortal because in the statement above, all living things come from the dead meaning that we were once dead and we are now alive

In this paper I will be discussing the tripartite (three parts) of the soul that Socrates discussed in chapter 6 of Plato’s Republic, and I will compare and contrast them to that of Aristotle and Anthony Kenny. In Plato’s Republic the three parts of the soul consist of the rational, spirited and, desire. In this dialogue the three parts of the soul go hand and hand with three parts of a just society.

The philosophical thought is that the mind and body are two separate things; with one being able to exist without the other has caused much discussion and debate among philosophers and theologians over the years. René Descartes and Plato, two well-known philosophers, argue that people have a mind or soul, which is somehow connected with the body, but the mind or soul can exist independently from our body. Descartes introduces the mind-body argument while Plato presents the soul-body argument. Although the arguments differ in some ways, Descartes and Plato also have similar opinions on the issue. As a person of faith, there is some difficulty in explaining to a non-believer that when a person dies, the soul does not perish with the body. While siding with Descartes and his belief in a perfect God, this essay seeks to review the issues of dualism and meditation, through the eyes of Descartes and Plato.

Why does Plato think that the soul is immortal? Is he right? Discuss with close reference to Phaedo 102a-107b.

One of the most ancient mystery yet unsolved is the question pertaining to death and the afterlife. This mystery is one of the fundamental studies in both field of philosophy and religion. Comparing those who believe in a god-existing religion against those who don’t, we often see many differences in the answers relating to death. In the contrary, the similar answers to theist and atheist are evident strongly in two great thinkers and their works. The focus will be on Socrates’ speech in the Apology by Plato setting in 399 BCE and De Rerum Natura by Titus Lucretius 300 years later.

Before touching on the arguments of Plato from the theories of Socrates, the belief that the soul is immortal must be explained. The idea of immortality is expressed as conquering death. Therefore, Plato explains that the soul is immortal because through death, the soul is freed from the body. One can conclude that the soul and the body are two different entities that do not necessarily need each other for existence. In Phaedo, it is explained that a dedicated philosopher should look forward to death. The soul should be freed from the body, which can only occur through death. The best way to understand this concept is to follow a true philosopher. This will guide a person into the realization that their ultimate aim in life should be the freeing of the soul from the body because death is the only way for the soul to live on until it is completely pure. The immortality of the soul can be further explained through the four arguments presented in Phaedo:

One of the most spellbinding metaphors in Plato's Phaedo that shows the struggle between the body and the soul is a description of the body as a prison for the soul, so the soul is a prisoner that stuck within the material body. (Plato Phaedo 82e) The Imprisoned soul associates with the body, because of its' incomprehension to get-out from the prison. Therefore, the materiality intrudes more and more to contaminate the soul within the body. In which Plato's divided line steps play the role of gradually freeing the soul from its' own imprison. Despite Plato’s complex theory, It’s philosophy that can lead the human to extract much to tell about how the humans can look at the world from wiser angles than from those of the body. Plato builds his fundamental idea about this theory that what humans see or what they used to see may not be the reality or truth but mere deceptive shadows of truth, and therefore the senses for him are deceiving and unreliable. The soul is immortal, and the body is the mortal part, in which both exist in the living human. According to Plato, when the soul dissociates from the body, the soul leaves the world of becoming and enter the world of being. However, the soul has separate ability away from the body, and this independent existence reflects the most purity state away from the body. (Plato Phaedo 114d)