I would suggest that some more discussion of the soul in Plato's Phaedo is called for. Though I am sure we'll get to it in class!
For instance, what do we think the soul is - what is its nature, what is it made of, and what does it do? Does Plato think of it as a source of life, or is it more of an ethereal, mysterious, and spiritual kind of thing (perhaps similar to the Christian sense)?
Also, although I think it's pretty certain that Plato incorporates earlier theories of the soul in the Phaedo (principally the Pythagorean and Heraclitean ones), I wonder what we make of the notion that the soul is subject to the cosmic process of always emerging and fading according to oppositions? That is, on what ground is it right to say that human birth always emerges from death, and that death conversely always comes from life? One alternative a discerning reader might suggest is that the soul should just *be* - that there's not a demonstrable reason for why it's subject to ebb and flow, wax and wane, coming and going. Presumably the eternal motions of the heavens are more like this; in addition, I would suppose that the life of G(g)od(s) is more like this model.
It's not necessary to post in reply to this specific entry - but this is some food for thought.
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