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Similarities Between Socrates And Religious Beliefs

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Topic 2: Socrates and Religious Beliefs

Introduction
In Phaedo, Socrates asserts a number of claims regarding the existence and nature of the afterlife and the immortality and reincarnation of the soul. I will be contrasting and comparing Socrates beliefs with those of the Jewish faith. Socrates gives four arguments for the immortality of the soul and recounts a myth of the afterlife. Those of the Jewish faith also believe in the immortality and reincarnation of the soul. They believe that the righteous go to the Olam Ba-Ha in the afterlife, a place of spiritual perfection, while the wicked are punished and excluded from the Olam Ba-Ha. Socrates views and the beliefs of those of the Jewish faith are actually quite similar. However, I am of the opinion that one ought to favour the beliefs of Judaism.

Phaedo
Phaedo revolves around Socrates discussion of the existence and nature of the afterlife. The soul’s immortality is one of the predominant themes in Phaedo. In the dialogue between Socrates and his friends/philosophers, they discuss four arguments for the immortality of the soul to illustrate and attempt to prove the concept of the afterlife. The afterlife is the place where the soul supposedly goes after we die. The four arguments are: The Opposites Argument, The Theory of …show more content…

He asserts that the unvarying and invisible Forms are the cause of all things that exist. He claims that all things have the qualities they do because they participate in certain Forms. The example he gives is that beautiful things participate in the Form of Beauty and are only beautiful because of their participation in this Form. Analogously, the soul participates in the Form of Life. It therefore follows that the soul can never die, it is immortal. He states that the Form of Life is a crucial element of the soul and that it is unimaginable to think of the soul as ever being anything but

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He further to response to Princess Elisabeth question by introducing to her what is called (Cartesian Dualism) he uses these to explain to her that the mind, soul and the body are not the same and can never be same, which came to conclude that your mind cannot be your body and your body cannot be your mind. He also explains

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Religion and profound quality, in his view, are so firmly related that neither one of the ones can exist separated from the other. Dissimilar to the Sophists, who were familiar with think about the requests of ethical quality as just the wants of the general population who planned them, Socrates has faith in a standard of profound quality that is something more than the human conclusion. He distinguishes it with

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If the soul cannot possibly begin when a person does, when and where else could the event take place? However, Darrow 's argument is impaired by his incongruous application of the term soul. He mentions that the soul is popularly equated with identity, consciousness and memory, but fails to specify whether it is this notion or another that he uses. (42) Presuming, for the sake of moving forward, that it is this definition he himself adopts, it seems directly in conflict with his belief that the soul would exist outside of the physical body. (43) Darrow 's argument lacks a clear explication of his concept of the soul and, furthermore, it presents a confusing, contradictory account of the soul 's nature and

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Reading Response for Week 3: Chapters 5, 7, 9, 14, and 15 The view of afterlife according to the ancient Greeks could be mainly found in three readings. The first one is Homer’s Odyssey, which was the first book to talk about the afterlife. In the book, Odysseus tells people about his journey to the underworld.

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He supported his ideas as to why life after death would be greater than life

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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

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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

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He also believes that it is not difficult to refrain from death, but it is difficult to stay away from evil since it surrounds us all. Doing something evil and sinful will torment one’s soul forever, even after death. Socrates believes

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“…if I disobeyed the oracle because I was afraid of death: then I should be fancying that I was wise when I was not wise. For this fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of the unknown: since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good” (Apology, 29a-29b). This potent statement not only highlights Socrates’ wisdom, it effectively makes use of his belief that he is wise because he knows nothing. By saying that he knows nothing of the afterlife, it gives him the reason to illustrate to his audience that he cannot fear what he does not know.

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Socrates is quoted as stating, “An unexamined life is a life not worth living” (38 a). Socrates was a founding figure of western philosophy, and a stable for many ideas. He lived in Athens, Greece teaching his students, like Plato, questioning politics, ethical choices, and many other things in Greek society. In the Trial and death of Socrates: Four Dialogues by Plato, it explores the abstract questioning Socrates had towards many of the normal social properties, which led to his trial, resulting in his death. The most important aspects discussed in the dialogues is the questioning of what is pious and impious, what it means to be wise, and good life.

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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.

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Second, we’re separate from the universe. Everything acts in its own accord and as its own entity. For example, “dogs, swing sets, low hanging clouds, etc.…” Then third he mentioned, “We’re permanent”. Basically, death is a very real thing.

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Socrates’ original argument was not valid or sound. The premises were corrected but the argument needed another premise to make the conclusion true. Adding premise two takes away any confusion there was to what immortality meant. Since Socrates’ spent almost the entire book creating a just person and a just city the information about what is good and bad for a soul makes sense. It also makes sense that those things cannot destroy the soul because injustice and other vices could only lead the body to make poor choices and possibly get sick or die from those poor choices.

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Today virtually every child grows up learning that the Earth orbits the Sun, but four centuries ago the heliocentric solar system, where the Earth orbits the Sun, was so controversial that the Catholic Church classified it as a crime of heresy (UCLA). In the age of early philosophy, Socrates’ is well known. Between the Socratic method and his line of successful students, Socrates’ makes the history books. Galileo Galilei turned astronomers on their heads when he discovered moons around Jupiter. Giordano Bruno didn’t back down from any of his brilliant and different ideas.

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It embodies the insight that there is a serious muddle at the centre of the whole of Descartes theory of knowledge. He says that we do not hold a clear idea of the mind to make out much. ‘He thinks that although we have knowledge through the idea of body, we know the mind “only through consciousness, and because of this, our knowledge of it is imperfect” (3–2.7, OCM 1:451; LO 237). Knowledge through ideas is superior because it involves direct access to the “blueprints” for creation in the divine understanding, whereas in consciousness we are employing our own weak cognitive resources that

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