The Meno And Phaedrus Analysis

The soul is an important issue present in the Platonic texts The Meno and Phaedrus; each one has similarities and differences from each other, which are going to be present in the following paper. I’ll develop the text by explaining how both texts have views on the conception of the soul, the conception of the soul seems to be based on the same foundation yet it differs in certain key ways. Looking at certain similarities, first I’m going to explain how in both texts the soul is immortal, then I will go on into explaining the meaning of the soul being immortal which is the theory of recollection, next I’ll be explaining about the structure of the soul since in the Phaedrus it’s present while in the Meno is not and I will also show that the …show more content…
In one hand, we can see how Socrates in The Meno explains the argument of the immortality of the soul. He states that “They say that the human soul is immortal; at times it comes to an end, which they call dying; at times it is reborn, but it is never destroyed, (…) As the soul is immortal, (…) it can recollect the things it knew before, both about virtue and other things.” (Meno, Plato. Pag. 71) This explains the theory of recollection is summarized in the idea that knowing is remembering. Our soul remembers something that it learns while living in the world of …show more content…
As we can see in the following quote “Every soul is immortal. That is because whatever is always in motion is immortal, while what, moves and is moved by, something else stops living when it stops moving. So it is only what moves itself that never desists from motion, since it does not leave off being itself.” (Phaedrus, Plato. Pag. 523-524). Accordingly we can see the soul is seen as the foundation of movement where the theory of the soul is identified as the origin of life, in other words where life is developed. The soul is the only real thing that can move by itself without an external force this is because “Following contemporary Greek religious belief and Socrates assumption that everything is involved in an eternal cyclical process, Plato naturally understands immortality (and pre-existence) of the soul in terms of reincarnation” (Unknown. "Plato's Immortality of the Soul." Plato's Immortality of the Soul.) Therefore the soul is a vital principle, without it there’s no life. What is continually moving is endless. That which is gotten under way by something else that stops to exist when it’s not moving anymore. Then what moves by itself (the soul) never halts moving, since it is never ceased without any external interruption. Therefore the soul is immortal; additionally it’s able to achieve truths after its detachment