Immortality of the Soul in the Phaedo
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In the Phaedo, Plato addresses a question that has interested man probably since man became aware of death, the question of the immortality of the soul and of the possibility of life after death. Plato sees this idea of the immortality of the soul as one that has to be accepted by reasoning man. In the Phaedo, Socrates, representing Plato's position, believes in the eternal life of the soul and guides the discussion in the direction of accepting this idea, offering as he does so several proofs for the immortality of the soul. Immortality was a subject of immediate interest to Socrates at this time because this discussion takes place on the last day Socrates is to spend in prison before his execution. Socrates does not fear death because he has complete faith in immortality. He wants to convince his followers to believe in immortality as well. In part, he wants them to be free of anxiety over his fate, and he uses the occasion to speculate on the idea of immortality and to examine the various proofs that could be offered for immortality based on the nature of the soul. Socrates presumes the existence of the soul. Proof for the existence of the soul is not offered in this dialogue. Phaedo states that Socrates does not object to dying because he believes in the existence of the soul and knows that the soul will cross over to be with the gods and with other men who have already made this journey to the afterlife: "Although I was witnessing the death of one who was my
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ch recollection is accomplished by the soul, and this means that the soul must have something to recollect. Plato tries to show that there must be pre-existing ideas and that therefore Socrates had a pre-existence before birth. This leads to the idea that there must be an after-existence as well, again based on the idea that opposites are generated from one another and that there must be a symmetry in the universe.
Socrates looks further in the issue of knowledge and what kinds of knowledge the soul is capable of ascertaining. Some of the knowledge of which the soul is capable is knowledge that is absolute and eternal, or that is knowledge of the absolute and eternal. The fact that the soul can be in touch with the eternal leads Socrates to conclude that the soul must be eternal itself. Socrates is not clear about what he means when he says that the soul is capable of knowledge of the absolute and eternal, since he uses this to assume that it must be absolute and eternal. He does not say that the soul actually has such knowledge but only that it is capable of having it, but he also says that the soul is eternal because it is in touch with the eternal rather than because it has the capability of being in touch with the et
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Approximate Word count = 1379
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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