Phaedo

Question 1

Like the forms, the soul is dissoluble and will survive the body (distinction)

Answer 1

1: there are two kinds of things, “incomposite” and “composite”
2. Incomposite things are “things that are always in exactly the same state,” invisible, not able to be “scattered into pieces, eternal.
3. Composite things are perceivable, “always changing” and able to be “scattered into pieces”
4. The forms are incomposite
5. Material things are composite
6. Human beings are part body part soul
7. The soul is similar to the unseen forms, while the body is more like the visible

C: Like the forms, the soul is dissoluble and will survive the body.

Question 2

The soul is eternal and thus indissoluble (function)

Answer 2

1: When the soul attends to what is perceivable by the senses, it gets “dragged by the body”. Its functioning is impaired.
2. When the soul investigates by itself, and attends to what the forms via reason, its functioning is not impaired.
3. That which enables our functioning is what we are akin to
4. When in contact with or in relation to eternal things, the soul itself remains eternal.

C: The soul is eternal and thus indissoluble

Question 3

It is conceivable that the soul is very like that which is divine, deathless, the object of intellect, uniform and dissoluble, unchanged (master/slave)

Answer 3

1: Nature “lays down” that the soul rules as “master” over the body.
2. The master/slave relationship is like the one that exists between the divine and the mortal

C: It is conceivable that the soul is very like that which is divine: deathless, the object of intellect, uniform and dissoluble, unchanged.

Question 4

philosophers are destined for the best afterlife as their souls are finally reconciled with what it pursues: the divine, deathless, and wise. What they attain in life is fully achieved after death

Answer 4

1. A purified soul will depart to the world to which it is similar
2. A corrupt soul will remain shackled to the corporeal visible world.
3. The “happy state” of the soul is characterised by freedom from human evils, fellowship with the gods, contemplation of the eternal truths.
4. Engagement with the world of the body corrupts the soul
5. Detachment from the corporeal world of the body through the pursuit of wisdom (philosophy) “purifies” the soul.
6. Those who practice philosophy “keep clear of all the bodily desires instead of surrendering themselves to them”

C: Philosophers are destined for the best life as their souls are finally reconiclled with what they pursue.

Question 5

Philosophy offers freedom from the prison of the body and its desires (prison)

Answer 5

1: When the soul is bound to the body, it is forced to investigate things through the senses “as if through prison bars”
2. This leaves the soul in “total ignorance”
3. Philosophy knows how the body “relies on the prisoner’s own desired”
4. The soul is not to consider anything as true what it investigates through the “sense-organs”
5: What the soul “sees by itseld is an object of intellect”

C: Philosophy offers liberation from the prison of the body and its desires.

Question 6

When it dies, the soul of the philosopher arrives at what it is akin to, as it is released from human ills. (pleasure and pain)

Answer 6

P1: Each pleasure and pain “fastens it to the body as if with a nail”

2: those who attend to pleasures and pains (perceptions) believe them to be true, which they are not. In this stste, the soul is a prisoner of the body.
3. The soul of the philosopher removes themselces from pleasure, pain, desires and fears by contemplating the “true and divine.”
4. The soul of the philosopher is liberated from the corrupt prison of the body in life

C: when it dies, the soul of the philosopher arrives at what it is akin to, as it is released from human ills.

Question 7

Like attunement, the soul perishes with the body (Simmias)

Answer 7

1: The lyre and its strings are similar to the body in that they are “bodily, composite, earthly and akin to the mortal.”
2. Attunement is similar to the soul in that they are “invisible, incorporeal, altogether beautiful, even divine”
3. Both soul and attunement are the result of when the composite things are in harmony.
4. When the lyre is destroyed, attunement also perishes despite the fact it is akin to the divine and the deathless.

C: Like attunement, it must follow that the soul perishes with the body.

Question 8

It is not possible to hold both the theory of recollection and the theory of attunement without contradiction

Answer 8

1: according to the recollection argument, thhe “soul exits…before being imprisoned in the body.”
2. Attunement cannot pre exist the instrument
3. (minor conc) the soul is not like attunement

C: It is not possible to hold both the theory of recollection and the theory of attunement without contradiction

Question 9

The soul is unlike attunement 1

Answer 9

1: An instrument can have more or less attunement
2. A soul cannot have “more or less” soul

C: The soul is not like attunement

Question 10

The soul is unlike attunement 2

Answer 10

1: As souls can be considered good or bad, and instrument may be in tune or out of tune.
2: An instrument in tune “would never have any share in lack of tuning”
3: If a soul was akin to attunement, it would not have any share of badness. All souls would be “similarly good.”
4. This is not the case as “not all” souls are good.

C: The analogy does not hold.

Question 11

The soul is unlike attunement 3

Answer 11

1: The soul is master of the body. It “directs” it.
2. Attunement “never tries to lead” the instrument.It is dependent on it.
3. The soul is not dependent on the body as it pre-exists it.

C: The soul is not like attunement.

Question 12

A soul cannot admit death, and is thus immortal

Answer 12

1: A form has a correlating opposite
2. A form can never admit its opposite or become “opposite to itself”
3: Some things, while not the opposite itself, must necessarily exclude the opposite it participates in.
4. Soul participates in the form of life
5. The opposite of like if “deadness”
6. The soul “will never let in to itself what’s opposite”

C: The soul cannot admit death, and so is something “deathless, immortal”

Question 13

Like the forms, the soul is dissoluble and will survive the body EVAL

Answer 13

The soul has other elements such as subjective experience that it does not share with the forms.

From an empirical point of view, what cannot be validated by experience does not exist.

Not compatible with scientific investigation.

Does this need for universals at the language level entail a metaphysical plane?

Question 14

The soul is eternal and thus indissoluble EVAL

Answer 14

This description of the soul as liable to be corrupted and influenced by the body is in contrast to the view that it is unchanging and perfect. The forms are immune to the influence from the material world. Here, the soul seems not.

While reflection is important for the attainment of wisdom, is it not the case that we are reflecting on empirical evidence?

Likeness may be a chance, coincidence, or characteristic but not a definite fact that leads to truth. Fire burns faster when it is around similar hot things. This does not mean that fire is the things.

Question 15

The soul is very like that which is divine, deathless, the object of intellect, uniform and dissoluble, unchanged EVAL

Answer 15

Isn’t it more that our emotions and desires rule our reason? Is this not the case in Greek tragedies?

Relies on the assumption of a functional rational capacity.

The fact that the soul can be easily corrupted by the body makes the conclusion that it is divine questionable.

Question 16

Philosohers are destined for the best afterlife because their souls are finally reconciled with what they pursue EVAL

Answer 16

Implications: The body is a prison, and life may no longer be sacred. Socrates killed himself over this belief. The destruction of the body may no longer be of such significance as we consider it to be now.

Question 17

Philosophy offers freedom from the prison of the body EVAL

Answer 17

The passage of the soul to the afterlife is questionable and relied on the twin assumptions of the existence of an immateiral realm and an afterlife. These cannot be verified in an empirical manner.

Engagement with the corporeal world is necessary to live well, but also can be damaging.

Desires can impair our rational capacities

Question 18

When it dies, the soul of the philosopher arrives at what it is akin to, as it is released from human ills EVAL

Answer 18

Pain and pleasure are experienced by both the body and mind through neural pathways. Can we question the splitting of the psyche and body?

Corruption of the forms does not exist in the same way it does for the human soul. Are they similar?

Question 19

Like attunement, the soul perishes with the body EVAL

Answer 19

While attunement is universal in its invisibility, incorporeality, beauty and divinity, due to the subjectivity of the soul in that it differs from person to person, the soul is not like attunement. Attunement cannot be considered in moral terms.

Question 20

It is not possible to hold both the theory of recollection and the theory of attunement without contradiction EVAL

Answer 20

John Locke ‘Tabula Rasa.’ We learn everything for the first time. There is no evidene to suggest recollection, especially in regards to new evidence.

Question 21

The soul is unlike attunmenet 1 EVAL

Answer 21

The soul can be inpaired in its rationality, but we do not talk about it in quantitave terms. It is impossible for an immaterial thing to have more or less.

Question 22

The soul is unlike attunement 2 EVAL

Answer 22

Agree: Simmias’ objection does not hold if we speak of the soul in moral terms.

Question 23

The soul is unlike attunement 3 EVAL

Answer 23

Again, is the body the master of the soul or the other way around?

The soul is dependent on the body. Our psyche is impacted by brain trauma.

Question 24

A soul cannot admit death and is thus immortal EVAL

Answer 24

The opposite of rationality is irrationality, yet we still occasionally admit it.

Although fire cannot accept cold and still be fire, it can still be destroyed by it.

Question 25

The soul is a drunk when it perceives through the body ANALOGY

Answer 25

The soul is “confused, dizzy as a drunk” due to the mortality of the physical world. It is not akin to it.

Question 26

The soul is the master and the body the slave ANALOGY

Answer 26

The soul directs the body, like Gods direct mortals.

Question 27

The body is a prison ANALOGY

Answer 27

The body is a prison because it impairs functionality

Question 28

Nail ANALOGY

Answer 28

Each pleasure and pain fastens itself as if it were a nail.

Question 29

Homer’s Odyssey ANALOGY

Answer 29

“Bear up my heart! Much worse you have endured” To argue that the soul can command the body to do otherwise.