xeren

Does anyone else take issue with Plato's work, Phaedo, regarding the immortality of the soul?

It seems that Plato(or Socrates, rather) contradicts himself when he says that what present in a body makes it alive is the soul, yet, he says that what makes something beautiful is the universal, "beauty" itself.

By his arguement, shouldn't what makes a body alive, be the universal "being alive"(or something to that effect?).

Am i making any sense? Reading Plato twists my brain. Any help on this would be appreciated. The passage i refer to is 105c.

[ October 24, 2002: Message edited by: xeren ]</p>

godlessmath

I believe that what Plato is saying is that "soul" is the actual mechanism that makes us alive. Much like the shinny new paint of a car is the mechanism which "makes" a car bautiful. Thus, we can say that the universal Beauty is acting through the paint to make the car beautiful. In the same way, the form of "being alive" could use the soul as its mechanism to make the body alive.

Better?

xeren

Kinda. But what about this?, in 100 d, Socrates says, "...if somone tells me that a thing is beautiful because it has a bright color or shape or any such thing, i ignore these reasons...for i will not insist on the precise nature of the relationship, but that all things are made beautiful by Beauty"

But i think you are right when you say that, and i think that is where Socrates contradicts himself.

Amos

I think that according to Plato only beauty and truth are real with beauty being the continuity of truth. Truth is the body and the soul extracts beauty from the universal to make it manifest in the body.

In the Christian tradition God is beauty and Lord God is truth, or, God is love and lord God is life to make love the effective force of life and life the effective cause of love.

It just means that the soul is in charge of the body.

The immortality of the soul just means that the blueprint for the human body is incarnate and that each generation has the ability to make minor changes to this. Because of these changes evolution is possible while beauty remains universal in nature for all the species to extract life from.