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The Mortality Of The Soul In The Phaedo By Plato

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In "The Phaedo," which is included in Plato’s “Five Dialogues” he explains his theory of the forms and his ideas concerning the mortality of the human soul. He finds that the soul and body are separate and that the soul lives after death as it did before birth. This leads him to the idea of form, which is that we know things through substance, and how we acquire the knowledge of these substances before birth. He comes to the conclusion the only time the soul is separate from the body is in death and since the soul can only obtain knowledge of forms when it is away from the body, we understand that after death is the only time when the soul can gather this information. The intellect (mind) loses the idea of forms when it is born unto a physical body. …show more content…

This argument relies on the point that opposites rely upon one another and in fact lead to one another. In terms of life and death, this leads to the conclusion that, if life leads to death, then death must also lead to life. So, this means the living come from, or are reincarnations of, the dead, which then die and are born again. Second, knowing is remembering, called the recollection argument. This second argument is based on the idea that all knowledge is simply a form of recollection. This is proven by showing that a young, untutored boy, with no knowledge of mathematics at all, can be led to display or arrive at knowledge which he did not know he possessed. The third argument attempts to prove that the soul, although it may perhaps pre-exist birth, also survives death. Since the body is mortal, changing and made up of different parts, the soul; which seems not to be composed of many parts, must therefore also be immortal and unchanging. The last is the argument from opposites. Since death is the opposite of life, and opposites are mutually exclusive, therefore when the body dies, life must go

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In Euthyphro, Plato’s method of arguing obliviously proves the point that evidence and a clear thought out explanation is needed when trying to describe and explain the difference between two things—especially when involving right and wrong. Although it helps to prove it and make you truly think about the definitions as well as how to describe it, for the person, in this case Euthyphro, on the other side of the argument it can be very annoying; because you explain one thing and then are questioned and have to explain more or then you being to questioned on your own thinking making you have to restart. It is in a way similar to now how little kids go through a phase were they ask “why” to anything and everything; typically the one being questioned

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Plato’s Allegory of the cave represents life/death/rebirth. Life/death/rebirth is a popular archetype that most authors use in fictional books. Plato’s Allegory of the cave begins with people that are locked in chains inside of a cave. The people inside the cave see shadows on the wall of animals and creatures that they think represents their life. This cave is an illusion of life that the people are experiencing.

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Then, it follows that a just soul and a just man will live well, and an unjust one badly. The argument at first glance seems to be valid and sound. But not all of the premises appear to be true, and given that all the

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He mentioned that he would worship the idea of asking them questions, discuss his sufferings to others. He believed that he would win either way because he would be living a better life of finding out who is wide and he could continue his search for true and false knowledge. His arguments are valid because after he states his beliefs, he explains why he thinks what he thinks to be true. He created the theory of, “Either death is a state of nothing ness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world by another” (Plato).

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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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The final argument of Plato’s Phaedo was created to prove souls cannot perish. Plato does so by arguing how a soul cannot die nor cease to exist on the same fundamental grounds of how the number three can never be even. For the number three holds the essence of being odd, without being odd entirely. Similarly, a soul holds the essence of life through immortality, however the soul is not immortal itself and only participates in immortality, just as the number three participates in being odd. Additionally, an essence or form cannot admit to the opposite of itself just as small cannot be large simultaneously, and hot cannot be cold.

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This quotation is significant because it represents Socrates’ ideas about death. He believes that fearing the unknown is unreasonable because we don’t know what happens after death. Socrates also believes that “being dead is one of two things” (Socrates 58); either you feel nothing at all or it is a “journey from here to another place” (Socrates 59). Fearing something we don’t now is not going to get us anywhere except limit our potential. Although, death is a frightful concept, it might also be a good thing.

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In Plato’s Apology, Socrates is put into trial because he is accused of corrupting the youth with his teachings that deviate from the established beliefs of the Greek society. Although he justifies that he is only doing what he believes is his duty, he reasons that even if he is given a death penalty, death is nothing to be feared. He raises multiple strong and effective arguments that explain to his audience that it is illogical to fear death. All of these arguments revolves around the central idea that death is not evil and that “no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death” (Apology, 41c). The first argument that Socrates presents during his trial is the idea that death is not the most important thing to worry about in

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This is a great question. In my opinion, bottom of page 112 gave us Socrates' friend's thought and feeling at that particular moment. I believe it was Phaedo that stated that "I was so overcome that I burst into tears, buried my face in my own cloack...not for him but for my own misfortune at losing a companion like him. We can argue from this statement that they were feeling sad, just like anybody would in that circumstance, but notice their reason of being sad. It was not because Socrates is dying or is about to die, but because of their misfortune at losing a companion like him.

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aligns with reason and resists the desires of the appetite. It is in this part of the soul where the courage to be good is found. In the unjust soul, the spirit ignores reason and instead aligns with the appetitive desires, manifesting as the demand for the pleasures of the body. Plato asserts that the wise and just soul allows reason to govern the other parts, while the unwise and unjust soul allows conflict between the parts.12 Just as there is the appetitive part of the soul—the largest part of the soul—there is the productive class, or the workers, who have souls of bronze and account for the largest part of the population.13 This class includes the general population of laborers, plumbers, masons, carpenters, merchants, and farmers.

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Socrates in the dialogue Alcibiades written by Plato provides an argument as to why the self is the soul rather than the body. In this dialogue Alcibiades and Socrates get into a discussion on how to cultivate the self which they both mutually agree is the soul, and how to make the soul better by properly taking care of it. One way Socrates describes the relationship between the soul and the body is by analogy of user and instrument, the former being the entity which has the power to affect the latter. In this paper I will explain Socrates’ arguments on why the self is the soul and I will comment on what it means to cultivate it.

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1. I think one of the most important ideas that Plato expresses comes from Book VII of the Republic, in the Allegory of the Cave. It is an idea that states that the extent of our knowledge will usually only cover topics that we’ve had exposure in. Today, society’s access to information is abundant, but not everyone makes the decision to find that information. Thus, as a person grows up with the scope of their perception isolated in a certain environment (village, city, state, country, etc.), they may not be able to pull a good variety of influence and knowledge from areas outside their scope.

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If man knows his own being, then man knows that bare nothing cannot produce a being 3) Therefore, man knows that bare nothing cannot produce a being (from 1 and 2) 4) If bare nothing cannot produce a being, then there has been an eternal being 5) Therefore, there is an eternal (infinite) being

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Therefore, the soul is immortal. This argument is invalid because the conclusion does not agree with the premises. The premises all follow one another and make sense. The conclusion does not agree with the

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The intelligible world (the world of Forms) that gives the visible world it’s being.” (16) He believed that the soul exists without the body, and that we obtain wisdom from our thoughts and therefore we inherit this at the start of conception. Plato thinking were based on the divine being, who he believes made us, and the objects of the world. He believed, the soul was already formed, as what we see here on earth is just a reflection of what is already made.

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