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Socrates Phaedo Analysis

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The Resident of Invisible District
Anybody knows what is “immortality”? According to Merriam-Webster, “immortality” is referring to the quality or state of someone or something that will never die or be forgotten. Whether a person accepts it or not, the concept of “immortality soul” is always a part of the religions’ teaching, for example: Judaism, Hinduism and many others. Generally speaking, people do care about the existence of their soul overall. Socrates was one of biggest proponent of the immortal soul. In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates spent his last day on earth to argue about the immortality soul with his friends: Simmias and Cebes. At the beginning of his dialogue, Socrates claimed the immortal soul by opposition, recollection and affinity …show more content…

Significantly, the soul was different kind from the harmony. Unlike harmony, the soul was independent object and overpower its components. Secondly, he proved Simmias that the soul was not a harmony by demonstrated only the harmony admits degree. This is Socrates’ argument:
“Will it not, if it more and more fully harmonized, be more and more fully a harmony, and if it is less and less fully harmonized, it will be less and less fully a harmony (93 b). One soul is said to have intelligence and virtue and to be good, another to have folly and wickedness and to be bad (93 c). That being the case, could one soul have more wickedness or virtue than another, if wickedness is disharmony and virtue harmony (93 e)?
In this context, Socrates showed Simmias that harmony is limited to one extent and admit to the degree of either more or less, but the soul contained a broad content without restriction of degree or law. The most important thing was the existence of harmony was after the built of string and lyre, while the soul was existing before a human body. In short, the soul is a genus (form), but harmony is just one kind of

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