ipl-logo

Phaedo Analysis Essay

708 Words3 Pages

Phaedo Analysis
In Plato's Phaedo, Plato describes a philosophically dialogue inside a dialogue. In the beginning Echecartes talks to Plato and wants to know about Socrates death. Plato then argues whether the soul will ever die or always continue to exist and that it will go on to a better place but it will never die. The account begins when Socrates proposes that though suicide is not the right way to end your life and also that by taking your life is disrespectful to the gods, but that he also argues that the soul is immortal and indestructible. The argument is contrary to Cebes and Simmias who argue the soul of an individual is long lasting, it is mortal and is destroyed when the body dies. This paper describes Plato's four arguments for …show more content…

He argues that all things which "come to be" and have an opposite must necessarily come from their opposite and nowhere else. There are two processes in "coming to be." For example, 'fast' comes from "slow" and the process to be fast is to "speed up." So the process of living to being dead is 'dying'. The other process is going from being dead to being alive is called "coming to life". In this case, the souls of the living come from the dead and thus the souls of men who died must exist in the underworld.
Whether the souls of the living are immortal or destructible could also be argued in the following manner. We must understand the definition of 'Death' in Platos case 'Death' is the "separation of the soul from the body." (64c) The soul is a fundamental form of 'Life' and the opposite is the form of 'Death'. So the soul cannot be in the form of 'Death' so the soul can never die. Therefore, the soul is immortal and indestructible and continues to exist after …show more content…

Plato describes how learning is recollection and the soul exists even before birth. We must all know that 'Equal' and if we experience two equal things such as two stones that are equals, we know that the stones are not the 'Equal' itself. So the knowledge of 'Equal' is something that was not learned, but recollected. If we know the knowledge of 'Equal' is recollection, then our souls must have existed before its embodiment.
The third argument is seen in the argument of our soul from scattering. (78b-84b) The soul is similar to other forms that do not scatter. If the soul is unlikely to scatter then it will most definitely survive death. "The soul is similar to the divine, and the body resembles the mortal" so it must be expected that the soul is everlasting. (80b) Even the body, which is destructible, could survive death so it is likely that the eternal soul is indestructible. The survival of the body is the proof of survival of the

Show More
Related
745 Words | 3 Pages

In response to the long-standing philosophical question of immorality, many philosophers have posited the soul criterion, which asserts the soul constitutes personal identity and survives physical death. In The Myth of the Soul, Clarence Darrow rejects the existence of the soul in his case against the notion of immortality and an afterlife. His primary argument against the soul criterion is that no good explanation exists for how a soul enters a body, or when its beginning might occur. (Darrow 43) After first explicating Darrow 's view, I will present what I believe is its greatest shortcoming, an inconsistent use of the term soul, and argue that this weakness impacts the overall strength of his argument.

Read More
1225 Words | 5 Pages

In Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, he explains the soul and comes to the conclusion that the soul is immortal. Through describing the last hours of Socrates life before his execution, he lays out three arguments in support of the idea that while the body may cease to exist the soul cannot perish. In this paper, I will explicate Socrates three arguments for the immortality of the soul and their objections. Then I will argue on the presupposition of the Law of Conservation of Mass, that the universe, entailing the soul, must be cyclical. The Law of Conservation of Mass

Read More
411 Words | 2 Pages

However, the number three cannot ever be even for it holds a natural form of oddity that cannot be changed, the same is found with immortality. A soul cannot admit to death, which is the opposite of its essence immortality just as the number three cannot admit to being even. Leading to Plato’s conclusion of how a soul then must have to retreat, connecting back to Socrates believing death is best characterized by the soul separating from

Read More
846 Words | 4 Pages

This argument is based on three criteria. The first criterion is the termination thesis, which states that one ceases to exist at death, this

Read More
1610 Words | 7 Pages

Diving deeper into what arguments of Plato that Melinda might use, there are two predominate cases that Plato makes when it comes to the defense of the soul’s existence; the argument of recollection and the argument of opposites (Laurents, Plato's Phaedo 16,23). The first argument available to Melinda is that of the argument of recollection (Laurents, Plato's Phaedo 16). The argument of recollection is rooted in the idea that our souls exist before our bodies do, and that is why we have certain knowledge immediately when we are

Read More
892 Words | 4 Pages

If the process of generation from opposites were not cyclical, and there was no return of elements into their opposites, then all things would eventually turn into and remain in their otherwise opposite forms. (E.g. All that is awake would eventually become asleep and not return to wakefulness). Socrates asserts that this cyclical process is true of all opposites, including living and dying, and therefore he concludes that since the living must come from the dead, the soul (as that which gives life) must continue to exist beyond the death of an

Read More
1763 Words | 8 Pages

Within his inspection of the soul, he raised a great deal of questions. One of his greatest inquiries concerned the relationship between the body and the soul. “If the soul is of a different nature than the body it cannot be in it and if it is not in the body it cannot exist at all since there is no other place where it could be. This assumes that for the soul to exist in the body it must have the same nature as the body. Here the soul would exist only until the dissolution of the body in death.

Read More
1221 Words | 5 Pages

Paul Kalman Philosophy 1000 Section 6 Dr. Altamirano 5 December 2014 “Immortality of the Soul” Throughout this I paper I will attempt to give creditability on my stance regarding Plato’s view of the soul. In Phaedo Socrates presents the idea to society that the soul is immortal and that philosophers like him should look forward to death. I personally agree with his conclusion on the immortality of the soul.

Read More
506 Words | 3 Pages

There were no mortals are capable of attaining immortality, and death is

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

The first phrase of the passage can be disproved with the 'Argument from Opposites' and "Theory of Recollection'. The 'Argument from Opposites' states that everything comes from out of its opposite, implying that there is an endless cycle of life and death. Meaning that when we die, we do not stay dead but return to life after a period of time. During that period of time after death, we are introduced to the Truth by the 'Forms'. The 'Forms' are the ultimate

Read More
761 Words | 4 Pages

In Plato’s The Phaedo, Plato recounts Socrates’ last days. Socrates’ road to death leads him into an exchange of ideas about the concept of an afterlife. Socrates develops several arguments regarding the immortality of the soul. This was to prove that death is not the dying of body and soul jointly, but when the body dies the soul still exists. The weakest argument Socrates presents is The Argument of the Movement of Life and Death (70b-72a), which the soul is fixed and external.

Read More
207 Words | 1 Pages

1. Aristotle explains the definition of a soul as a substance that is in actuality. Aristotle explains that the soul is in actuality it exists as a potentially alive substance within the body. He states that the soul is a natural body that is potentially alive which in my mind will cause the reaction needed to control the body itself rejecting the ideas of dualists. 2.

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

In Plato’s, Phaedo, one of the arguments that Socrates makes for justifying his theory about the soul being immortal is the argument of opposites. The argument of opposites is found from 70c to 72c in the Phaedo. The argument is not logically valid as there are a few fallacies that occur with the definition of opposites with which Socrates defines his argument. This argument ultimately fails at being logically valid as contrary to premise 1, all things that have an opposite do not come from only their opposites. Socrates also does not specify in this argument whether he is referring to the soul dying or the body dying in the final premises.

Read More
524 Words | 3 Pages

In the Republic, Plato gives an argument saying the soul is immortal. In this paper I will present his argument and show that his argument is invalid. I will show why the conclusion is not true and restate the argument to make it valid to help with Socrates’ claim. Plato’s argument on why the soul is immortal: 1. Something can only be destroyed by the thing that is bad for it.

Read More
1015 Words | 5 Pages

Because of this, it is said that while the body may be visible after death in the form of a corpse, as the body is mortal and the soul is godly, making the soul outlive the

Read More

More about Phaedo Analysis Essay

Related Topics

Open Document