Phaedo: Body Impeding The Soul

In this essay it will be argued that the soul is mortal and does not survive the death of the body. As support, the following arguments from Lucretius will be examined: the “proof from the atomic structure of the soul,” the “proof from parallelism of mind and body,” the “proof from the sympatheia of mind and body,” and the “proof from the structural connection between mind and body.” The following arguments from Plato will be used as counterarguments against Lucretius: the “cyclical argument,” the “affinity argument,” the “argument from the form of life,” and the “recollection argument.” It will be shown that Plato’s premises lack validity and that Lucretius’

Plato’s theory of the simplicity of the soul is seen in the Phaedo. Through the mouthpiece of Socrates, Plato argues for a simple soul which only has one true aim. He states that the soul only seeks truth and that all other senses and experiences are merely distractions through the soul being embodied ‘the soul reasons best when none of these senses troubles it, neither hearing nor sight, nor pain nor pleasure, but when it is most by itself, taking leave of the body and as far as possible having no contact or association with it in its search for reality.’ (Plato, 1997, §65c). The simple soul can only aim to grasp the truth of reality which it gets closer to as man becomes closer to death. This is why, in Plato’s opinion, a philosopher in particular can

Liberation here in the visible realm comes from recognizing the hindering function of the body in the soul's search for knowledge. Socrates comments that a soul associated too closely with the

The body relates itself to materiality in this world through actions, touch, hearing, sight and smell. Therefore, some souls are not ready to move on into another state of being after separation from the body. The body is a prison for the soul and the soul is uninformed on ways to escape from the body and acts as a filter for the present state or reality. There is an interesting symbol to consider in this context, because Socrates is a prisoner himself, bound in chains and is going to be released only to die. Furthermore, one’s care for the body acts as distraction such as wealth and other material goods.

Socrates discovered that men of good repute were not wise in their moral values and were foolish., while those of lesser means were more knowledgeable. The argument here is that Socrates earned a poor reputation because he publicly exposed the wealthy men of Athens in their ignorance and lack of knowledge. This inquisition led Socrates to have many enemies. (Apology, 3) During the trial Socrates referred several times to the force of truth. He is implying that he wants Athenians to accept logical conclusions even if they may not want to. Socrates also claims that obsession with wealth and material things must never take precedence over the care of one's soul. Socrates challenges their values and asks if they are not ashamed of their eagerness to possess wealth, honor, and reputation and caring little about wisdom and truth and enriching their souls? Socrates is attempting to reveal to the jury that the soul is forever and is more important then physical obsession. Furthermore, he says that "this is the command of God and that my service to you is to show you that I'm here to improve your soul." (Apology, 6) Wealth and prestige, for most Athenians, was very important and hearing these claims and the commands from god further fueled the anger against Socrates. Later he identifies himself as a gadfly sent by god to awaken and arouse the people and to show them the way to enlightment and improve their soul. To prove his mission that he was given by god, he

With Socrates’s ability of daringly questioning people’s fundamental beliefs, came a brand new reputation. He was the first person to present the idea of a distinction between the body and the soul (Huffman 567). In

Socrates tries, but fails, to convince Callicles that he knows of Callicles’ beliefs better than Callicles seem to know himself. Subsequently, Callicles, rejects Socrates outlook vehemently, and refuses to yield to the works of Socratic logic. Instead, Callicles spent a good portion of the dialogue simply chastising Socrates and his immersion in the search of philosophy (484c). According to Callicles, a grown man should not engross himself in such a pursuit for it is, apparently, disgraceful, unsophisticated, and childlike. Throughout the discussion, Socrates equips the audience with an abstract logical proof of the distinction between the good and the pleasant, despite Callicles persistence that pleasure and good are identical (494a-495a). The remainder of the text concludes with Socrates attempt to reveal an apposite balance of the virtues and their materialization into a righteous life (495d-496e). He describes the virtue of the body as well the soul through aerobics and medicine, as well as through abstinence and righteousness respectively (497c-498a). At the dialogue’s conclusion, Socrates speaks of his fear – not of death, but of facing judgment with a corrupt soul (522e). According to Socrates, a corrupt soul can be alleviated through punishment in Hades but the best chance of having an untainted soul and evading said punishment is through the impassive and isolated life of philosophy that he himself leads

According to Socrates one of the most important things that identify with human being is their desire. Socrates argues that desire that can change people minds quickly and very abnormally. The three-part division of the soul is crucial to Plato’s overall project of offering the same sort of explication of justice whether applied to societies or individuals.

In his final moments, Socrates continues to illustrate his views on true life to his distraught friends. He stands by these views as he refuses to escape his own death because his belief is that death cannot harm him; only loss of integrity can. This choice, however, causes strife for the people in Socrates’s life because in the absence of him, they are, in their own eyes, worse off. However, this is not harm to the self as Socrates views it, therefore, by his death, harm has not reached anyone’s self. In this way Socrates demonstrates that no one should lose integrity for the sake of someone else’s state of living. Death is not the end of a soul, and after death a soul will maintain its integrity. If this is true, Socrates

A famous Greek Philosopher named Plato was a duellist who believed that the soul is indeed distinct from the body. Plato believed that the soul is more important than the body as the body is apart of the empirical world and like all objects is subject to change (in a constant motion of change). Plato said that the body and its senses cannot be a reliable guide to the truth as it did not pre – exist in his idea of “the world of forms” and so the body can only seek truth from

"...I spend all of my time going about trying to persuade you, young and old, to make your first and chief concern not for your bodies nor for your possessions, but for the highest welfare of your souls..." (Plato 62). He bases his arguments in an understanding that people can only be wise when their souls are free from their bodies, because the senses interfere with inquiry (Plato 131). Socrates admits, however, that throughout life the body and the soul are connected. They only separate at death, which he explains as "...the separate condition by itself of the soul when released from the body" (Plato 108). Based on this assumption, Socrates encourages people to give up bodily pleasures such as food, sex, and fancy clothes so that their souls can be as free as possible from their sensual bodies (Plato 108). Siddhartha uses the term Self to express the concept of the soul and the body. In order to free himself of the influences of the body on his soul, Siddhartha attempts "...to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure, and sorrow-to let the Self die" (Hesse 14). However, he too finds it impossible to completely separate the soul and the body so that he can discover truth.

With the question of human condition being answered, Socrates now can answer another one of our fundamental questions. This question is Solution. Solution proposes a way to fix what has gone with the world and mankind. In Socrates’ eyes, the world’s greatest problem was the attachment to the human body. He proposes that this can be fixed by detaching oneself from the body. Socrates partially explains this by saying “It seems that so long as we are alive, we shall keep as close as possible to knowledge if we avoid as much as we can all contact and association with the body, except when absolutely necessary; and instead of allowing ourselves to become infected with its nature, purify ourselves from it until God himself gives us deliverance. In this way, by keeping ourselves uncontaminated by the follies of the body, we shall probably reach the company of others like ourselves and gain direct knowledge of all that is pure and uncontaminated – that is, presumably, of Truth.” (Phaedo 67a-b). Socrates also talks about the importance of purification of the mind as another solution, which ends up coming back to the separation of the soul from the body. This can be seen when Socrates

Socrates utilizes this negative imagery in comparison for the body trapping the soul, however, the body is not a prison because

In Plato’s Republic, Book IV, Socrates discusses the ability of using two parts of a soul to interact in contradicting behavior towards the same object. He defines this as an interpretation that creates two distinct parts of the human soul: 1) the ration part of reason, and 2) the non-rational part of appetite. These two opposing parts are meant to provide insight on what defines a just person, in that when a person is able to apply the parts of the soul in union, it implies that the parts of the soul are properly working as a unit and not demeaning one another. Socrates goes on to suggest a third part of the soul, the part of spirit, and suggests that “provided it hasn’t been corrupted by a bad upbringing” (441a), it feeds that rational part of the soul. Socrates draws on the concept that when a soul is acting in unison, it is properly functioning and is therefore just, a concept that he states is analogous to the idea that a properly functioning body is therefore healthy.

The body is commonly thought of as a quintessential part of the search for knowledge. It’s used to gather evidence, and it gives us almost all the data that we have about the natural world. But Socrates makes the argument that the body only gives us subjective truths. Two people can look at a given thing and have a disagreement over the nature of what they saw, for example the beauty in a painting or the equality of two stacks of objects. Information is only as valuable as the reliability of the instrument used to gather it, and our bodies are extremely unreliable and inaccurate. In addition to simple inaccuracies, the body is tainted by its bodily desires. It is constantly preoccupied by thoughts of food, drink, and other physical needs such that we