James Moore
Dr. Georgia Mouroutsou
Philosophy 2205W
October 18, 2016
Plato’s Argument for the Souls Immortality The mysteries beyond our physical lives have always been up for debate. Arguments from the dawn of rationality range anywhere from religion to the sciences as to decipher human origin, our purpose in life and what lies beyond our known existence. Plato, an ancient Greek and arguably most prominent philosopher in history expresses his view in his work the “Phaedo” using his predecessor Socrates as the voice of his arguments. He covers the important question of whether the “soul” continues after death whilst using various arguments to reiterate his theory. Socrates states that the soul is immortal, hence it does exist both before and …show more content…
Socrates in the “Phaedo” presents the arguments to two other philosophers named Cebes and Simmias in which Socrates is trying to prove how the soul is immortal. His first argument, the cyclical argument, is conferred as a balanced opposition between states, as the soul is the balancing mean of life and death, therefore what dies must come back to life. The argument of recollection deals with innate memories of forms compared with our senses, whilst the affinity argument reiterates his view on both the visible and invisible world. The final argument is Socrates’s conclusion as to why he believes the soul is immortal, this argument is similar the cyclical theory as he states that opposites need one another to have a balanced mean. However, Socrates proves …show more content…
The cyclical arguments proves the soul to alive both before and after death as a balancing mean for two extremes. Without the soul having to come back to life, death would just be a continues factor and there would be no balance in between both extremes of birth and death, hence the soul comes alive again after death. The argument of recollection touches upon Plato’s theory of forms, and the only way we can know of them is from previous knowledge, only something our soul can obtain and not out humanly body. Therefor, the soul must exist before birth in order to be able to recollect on the world of forms. Finally, the final arguments Socrates presents confirms that because of the opposing extremes and the processes they posses, the soul cannot die as the souls purpose is life. Without life, the soul would cease to exist and henceforth it isn’t a soul. Finalizing that Plato, through the voice of Socrates, does in fact prove the soul is immortal in his work the
Dr. Georgia Mouroutsou
Philosophy 2205W
October 18, 2016
Plato’s Argument for the Souls Immortality The mysteries beyond our physical lives have always been up for debate. Arguments from the dawn of rationality range anywhere from religion to the sciences as to decipher human origin, our purpose in life and what lies beyond our known existence. Plato, an ancient Greek and arguably most prominent philosopher in history expresses his view in his work the “Phaedo” using his predecessor Socrates as the voice of his arguments. He covers the important question of whether the “soul” continues after death whilst using various arguments to reiterate his theory. Socrates states that the soul is immortal, hence it does exist both before and …show more content…
Socrates in the “Phaedo” presents the arguments to two other philosophers named Cebes and Simmias in which Socrates is trying to prove how the soul is immortal. His first argument, the cyclical argument, is conferred as a balanced opposition between states, as the soul is the balancing mean of life and death, therefore what dies must come back to life. The argument of recollection deals with innate memories of forms compared with our senses, whilst the affinity argument reiterates his view on both the visible and invisible world. The final argument is Socrates’s conclusion as to why he believes the soul is immortal, this argument is similar the cyclical theory as he states that opposites need one another to have a balanced mean. However, Socrates proves …show more content…
The cyclical arguments proves the soul to alive both before and after death as a balancing mean for two extremes. Without the soul having to come back to life, death would just be a continues factor and there would be no balance in between both extremes of birth and death, hence the soul comes alive again after death. The argument of recollection touches upon Plato’s theory of forms, and the only way we can know of them is from previous knowledge, only something our soul can obtain and not out humanly body. Therefor, the soul must exist before birth in order to be able to recollect on the world of forms. Finally, the final arguments Socrates presents confirms that because of the opposing extremes and the processes they posses, the soul cannot die as the souls purpose is life. Without life, the soul would cease to exist and henceforth it isn’t a soul. Finalizing that Plato, through the voice of Socrates, does in fact prove the soul is immortal in his work the