The Immortality of the Soul Essay - 1427 Words

Plato has roused many readers with the work of a great philosopher by the name of Socrates. Through Plato, Socrates lived on generations after his time. A topic of Socrates that many will continue to discuss is the idea of â€Å"an immortal soul†. Although there are various works and dialogues about this topic it is found to be best explained in The Phaedo. It is fair to say that the mind may wonder when one dies what exactly happens to the beloved soul, the giver of life often thought of as the very essence of life does it live on beyond the body, or does it die with it? Does the soul have knowledge of the past if it really does live on? In Plato’s The Phaedo, Plato recounts Socrates final days before he is put to death. Socrates has been†¦show more content†¦On the contrary Socrates believes that the soul is in fact immortal and if one wants to become free of pain they way to do so is to exempt themselves from the physical pleasures of the world. In this dia logue Socrates and the philosophers explore several arguments for this idea of an immortal soul. These arguments were to illustrate and verify that death is not the dying of body and soul collectively, but when the body dies the soul continues to live on. Socrates offers readers four main arguments: The Cyclical Argument, which is the idea that forms are fixed and external. The soul is the sole purpose of life in this argument, and therefore cannot die and it is also to be seen as virtually never-ending. Next is The Theory of Recollection, which insists that at birth everyone has knowledge that the soul experienced in another life. Meaning that the soul would have had to be existent before birth to bear this said knowledge. The Form of Life Argument confers that the soul bears a resemblance to that which is imperceptible and godly because it is abstract. The body bears a resemblance to the perceptible and the corporeal because it is objective. The Affinity Argument maybe the simplest of all. It reiterates Socrates thoughts of the body and soul, in saying that when the body dies and decomposes our soul will continue to exist in another world. Since the soul is immortal it has been recycled many times, and has also experienced everythingShow MoreRelatedPlato: Immortality of the Soul1505 Words   |  7 PagesPHAEDO: IMMORTALITY OF SOUL In the dialogue Phaedo Plato discusses the immortality of the soul. He presents four different arguments to prove the fact that although the body of the human perishes after death; the soul still exists and remains eternal. Firstly, he explains the Argument from Opposites that is about the forms and their existence in opposite forms. His second argument is Theory of Recollection which assumes that each and every information that one has in his/her mind is related toRead MoreThe Argument For The Immortality Of The Soul1250 Words   |  5 PagesThe Affinity Argument is the third argument for the immortality of the soul. This argument compares the soul to a greater level of reality: the Forms. The Affinity Argument In order to demonstrate more clearly that the soul coheres as a single entity after death, Socrates draws a distinction between things that breakdown and things that remain one, and then reasons that the soul belongs with the latter. Socrates states that composite things have the ability to break since theyRead MoreSummary : Immortality Of The Soul 1542 Words   |  7 PagesSierra Bauer Philosophy 110 Final Paper Immortality of the Soul Phaedo, also known to ancient readers as On the Soul, is one of greatest dialogues of Plato’s period. Phaedo centers itself around the death of Socrates. 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Within Plato’s Phaedo, SocratesRead MoreThe Immortality of the Soul in Platos Phaedo2878 Words   |  12 PagesDao Le Prof. Mark Cronin HU 102 - HD April 2, 2012 The Immortality of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedo Among Plato’s dialogues, which serve to honor the realm of philosophy in general and Socrates’s life in particular, the Phaedo dramatically and poignantly portrays the death scene of Socrates. The Phaedo evokes such tragic sentiments of pity and fear while at the same time glorifies Socrates as the martyr for the truth. He dies because of human’s injustice yet faces his own death with extraordinaryRead MorePlato s Views On The Immortality Of The Soul1391 Words   |  6 PagesIn one of Plato’s famous dialogues Phaedo, Plato touches on some of the theories of Socrates that focus on the immortality of the soul. Plato explains four main arguments that attempt to prove that the soul is indeed immortal. 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Phillips Conception of Immortality In his book Death and Immortality, D Z Phillips starts by asking the question: does belief in immortality rest on a mistake? The first two chapters are negative in the sense that they examine traditional philosophical, as well as common sense, conceptions of what immortality means. Phillips argues that philosophical analyses centred on the notion of immortality have generally been constructed around certain essential