• Home Page
  • The Body And The Soul In The Phaedo

The Body And The Soul In The Phaedo

Improved Essays
Show More
In this essay I will be stating three different arguments first, the relationship between the body and the soul in the Phaedo. Second, I will be stating how Plato’s argument from affinity support his view. And last but not least, the reason why a true philosopher is unafraid of death. There are two classes of things, visible and invisible. Visible things are those we know that exist because they have a form and the invisible things are those we cannot see, they have no form. Many people know that we have a soul we have never seen it but we assume that we have one because a body is not a body without a soul. By linking the soul to the invisible class of things, Socrates concludes that the soul must be immortal. The argument for Affinity …show more content…
Plato says that the soul is trapped inside our body. The soul can’t live without the body, so the only thing that the soul can do is take control of the body. The body has a negative impact upon the operations of the soul because the soul is looking at everything from the inside. The only way that the soul is freed from the body is when the body dies. The soul is released from the prison that it had live for so long. The soul needs to be absolved from all the good or bad deeds that the body has done. Philosophers should not be afraid of dying because they have been preparing themselves for death all their lives. Plato states that there is an afterlife for the souls and a person’s actions while they were alive is what helps determine where he soul will go. If a person lives a good life the souls will have a good afterlife but if a person lives a bad life, then the soul will live a bad afterlife. Living a good life is living a humble life and living a bad life is being a person that is full of …show more content…
Death is not something that you can prepare for, death is something that comes and goes unexpectedly. Simmias’ believes that the reason for the soul’s existence is the body. If the body does not exist, then the soul does not exist as well. Simmias’ is contradicting Socrates first argument. Simmias’ does not understand why the souls lives on after the body dies, he argues that once the body dies then the soul must die with the body. On the other hand, Cebs argues that he does not believe that the soul is immortal. He knows that we cannot see the soul but just because we don’t see it does not mean it’s

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    James Rachels 'Do We Survive Death?'
    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages

    James Rachels 'Do We Survive Death?'

    Abdulkabir Adejumo Professor Escalante PHILO 1301 11/2/2017 Response Paper 1 “Do We Survive Death?” In this interesting chapter, James Rachels starts by uncovering the philosophy of Socrates about the immortal soul. At that point, he utilizes the scientific argument to conflict with Socrates' conclusion about the presence of the soul as a piece of the human body.…

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Analysis Of Plato, Phaedo, And Lucretius
    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Analysis Of Plato, Phaedo, And Lucretius

    In the two texts that we read in class, Plato, Phaedo, and Lucretius, Nature of Things, both Socrates and Lucretius try to reassure us that we should not be afraid of death. In Plato, Phaedo, Phaedo is telling the story of Socrates’s final hours from being their first hand. In Lucretius, Nature of Things, Lucretius’s telling his view on religious issues and how he got to his view, poetic skills, and study on scientific phenomena. Both Socrates and Lucretius have different arguments on why we should not be afraid of death. Socrates and Lucretius would have their own responses to each other 's argument if they were to reply to each other.…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Soul And Soul In Simmias's Theory Of The Soul
    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Soul And Soul In Simmias's Theory Of The Soul

    Simmias believes that the soul controls the components that make it, however, Socrates points out that “a harmony does not direct its components but is directed by them” (Phaedo 93a). The soul is not controlled by the body like the harmony of an instrument. Harmony is dependent on the components of the instrument but a soul is not dependent on the body for any reason. The soul is not able to be a harmony because “being a soul is not a matter of degree, whereas being a harmony is” (Bostock 423). This is the main point that Socrates is able to mention to Simmias.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Eliot Deutsch's The Concept Of The Body
    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Eliot Deutsch's The Concept Of The Body

    The body, while seemingly clearly definable and understandable, is a concept that humans have struggled to define and understand for much of history. Social conceptions of the mind of spirit shaped philosophers’ understandings of the relationship between the mind and body, as well as attitudes toward the body. In his essay “The Concept of the Body,” Eliot Deutsch presents readers with four popular modes of conceiving of the body. These models, popularized at different points throughout history, are the prison, the temple, the machine, and the instrument. Through reading Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, one gains perspective on Socrates’ conception of the body, as a prison.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Socrates Cyclical Argument Analysis
    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Socrates Cyclical Argument Analysis

    The “cyclical argument” of the Phaedo imparts the ideology Socrates had in regard to the immortality of the soul and his views about death, which he was about to face himself. Among a gathering of his most faithful followers, his friends are astonished that Socrates is not desolate about his ill fate, but rather, he is delighted with it. Socrates proclaims that the life of a philosopher is merely a preparation for death since the mind is most pure when the pressures of the body is felt least. He even informs them that he believes in the soul and the afterlife. After his friends vocalized their skepticism of his beliefs, he begins a discourse in which he attempts to prove the immortality of the soul.…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Phaedo: Plato And The Argument From Opposites
    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Phaedo: Plato And The Argument From Opposites

    The Phaedo is perhaps one of the most well-known dialogues written by the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato. This dialogue recounts Socrates’ final hours before his death as told by Phaedo of Elis, one of the philosophers present during that time. Along with him were Crito and two other Pythagorean philosophers, Simmias and Cebes. The main focus of this dialogue is on the subject of immortality and the soul, and whether or not the soul will survive death. Socrates provides four arguments in which he aims to prove that the soul is in fact immortal.…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Plato's Apology: Socrates Should Not Fear Death
    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Plato's Apology: Socrates Should Not Fear Death

    In the “Apology” Socrates is on trial for crimes he has not committed. Socrates ultimately does not fear death because of his innocence, he believes that death is not feared because it may be one of the greatest blessings of the soul. For a person such as Socrates that has lived virtuously there no reason for them to fear death. Socrates makes the argument that one should not fear death because only the gods know what is beyond death,because death could be a blessing. According to Socrates, “I had at the risk of death, like anyone else, remained at my post where those you had elected to command had ordered me, and then, when the god ordered me, as I thought and believed, to live the life as a philosopher, to examine myself and others,…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    The Soul And The Body In Aristotle's De Anima
    • 1885 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Soul And The Body In Aristotle's De Anima

    For in Plato’s Phaedo, the soul is understood to merely be harbored in the body for a brief period. According to the Argument from the Form of Life, the soul, as being what gives life to a body, is the form of life thereby and cannot admit the opposite form, which is death (Plato 105D). Hence, the soul is indeed deathless (Plato 105E). We can see that the establishment of a kind of dualism motivates this argument. The soul is successful characterized as completely distinct and separate from the body.…

    • 1885 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Socrates Soul Analysis
    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Socrates Soul Analysis

    This section of “Plato’s Republic” demonstrates key ideas of the soul from Socrates view point. From the start of this section Socrates introduces his ideas to Glaucon. Socrates believed that cities have three attributes. He goes on to explain that since the attributes of a city come from the people living within, the soul must also be split into three attributes. Socrates attempts to break down the soul into three different categories; the part of the soul that learns or thinks (rational), the part of the soul that desires pleasure, and the part of the soul that is spirit.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Role Of The Soul In Plato's Republic
    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Role Of The Soul In Plato's Republic

    Throughout the Republic, Plato mentions the soul several times. Plato agrees that the soul is immortal and separate from the body. He also believes that the soul is eternal and according to Plato, the soul doesn’t come into existence with the body, but rather exists prior to being with the body. He believed that the soul exists inside the body until it dies. Because of this, Plato called the body the prison to the soul.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Fear Of Death: Socrates's Argument On Death
    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Fear Of Death: Socrates's Argument On Death

    Socrates’s Argument on Death The topic of death frightens human beings for several reasons because of the speculation and the anxiety that surround death. Even though most people fear death, philosophers such as Socrates argue that there is no valid reason to fear death (Ahrensdorf 1995). According to 5Socrates, death is a blessing in the context of the relocation of the soul. Socrates avers that death is something that people should not fear and provide several arguments to validate his argument.…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Plato's Final Argument For The Imorality Of The Soul
    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Plato's Final Argument For The Imorality Of The Soul

    I believe that, by using Socrates’ own arguments, we can see that the soul cannot, in fact, be deathless. Socrates says that the soul is what gives the body life: “what is it that, present in a body, makes it living? – A soul” (Plato, Phaedo, 105d). So, it seems that, without the soul, the body itself would be lifeless. If the soul is the only thing that gives the body life, then how is it possible for us to die?…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Good And Evil In Plato's Ancient Greek Philosophy
    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Good And Evil In Plato's Ancient Greek Philosophy

    Albeit perhaps not a definition thereof, Plato states that evil is something that prevents one from seeing the truth, which he blames almost exclusively on the body (Phaedo, 66b). This leads to the second great tenet of the philosopher’s worldview, regarding the separation of body and soul. To Plato, the body is more or less a dirty vessel that the soul and abstract forms manifest themselves in, such as beauty (Symposium, 211d-211e). In fact, he despises the body so much as liken it to “bonds” that keep his soul from reaching its desired goal of attaining knowledge (Phaedo, 67c-67d).…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Plato's Theory Of Human Nature
    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Plato's Theory Of Human Nature

    Plato felt as the Body was a hindrance to the soul, almost as if the body is the prison of the soul. Plato believed that you need to balance all sides of the soul depending on what kind of society you live…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Compare And Contrast Plato And Hume And Immortality Of The Soul
    • 1519 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Compare And Contrast Plato And Hume And Immortality Of The Soul

    His strongest empirical argument against the immortality of the soul goes as follows: "The soul, therefore, if immortal, existed before our birth: And if that state no wise concerned us, neither will the latter." Plato 's response to this argument would likely be that events prior to our birth, do in fact concern us because we are reminded of them every time we see approximations of forms. This rebuttal is troublesome, however, because it seeks to refute a physical argument with a metaphysical argument. Although these arguments are difficult to compare, they both offer a legitimate stance, in support of their respective…

    • 1519 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings