In the Phaedo dialogue, Plato brings up some serious speculation about souls and the afterlife. I say “serious speculation”, not because the subject matter is serious (although it is) but because the arguments and reasoning used by Plato is highly conjectural. For example, Socrates makes use of an old legend in order to state that the “living come into being again from the dead” (pg. 53, 70d). This eventually leads to his “opposites from opposites” argument, which I think everybody thought was ridiculous in class. This is important to note because I find it really interesting how Socrates says “true philosophers make dying their profession, and that to them of all men death is least alarming” (pg. 50, 67e). I’m wondering how the philosopher’s profession could primarily be about a topic that is so indefinite. Philosophy to me seems to be about knowledge, and the philosopher’s profession would be one that pertains to a bit more certainty and conclusiveness than Plato suggests here. However a thing that is entailed in the philosopher’s preparation for death is the nourishment of the soul through doing philosophy, and doing philosophy in of itself has a definite degree of certainty. The only uncertainty is in terming the philosopher’s profession as one of dying and/or preparing for death.
Also, I think Plato would regard the soul as being something more animate and alive, rather than ethereal and mysterious. An example of this would be when he is talking about how the philosopher “frees his soul from association with the body” (pg. 47, 65a). This implies that the soul is a living thing because only living things can be trapped and/or freed. A further example is just in the length of his discussion of the soul. He talks about it a lot, which probably shows that he does not regard it as something beyond his comprehension.
Well...I think S. finds the soul both animate and alive and also ethereal and mysterious. There's two different senses at issue in saying the soul is alive: 1) that it existed before it was in the body and is immortal and 2) that *when* it enters the body it gives the body life. The Phaedo writing doesn't distinguish well between these senses of being alive, but these ideas are important to recognize in accounting for the soul's journey.
ReplyDeleteI would say in regard to your reflections on Socrates and the subject of death that philosophy is about using things that are certain in order to reach the things that are uncertain. In the case of the soul, our reflections on knowledge, truth, and life would seem to function as a springboard and starting point for thinking about how these things happen. If we say the soul is responsible for them, then we must account for what soul is and where it comes from (and also where it goes at the end of life).