Analysis of the proofs of the immortality of the soul based on Plato's Phaedo treatise

Subject Areas : Intellectual explorations

meysam amani ¹ ( A member of the academic staff of the Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz branch )

Received: 2022-11-30 Accepted : 2023-01-07 Published : 2022-11-22

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Abstract :

Phaedo's treatise is important because it expresses Plato's three famous arguments on the immortality of the soul, which are respectively called "argument through contradiction", "argument through suggestion" and "argument through simplicity". In reasoning through contradiction, a general principle is expressed that every opposite emerges from its opposite. In reasoning through reminder, it is expressed that according to the proposition "learning is reminder", a person should have a spirit of Life is before birth so that it can reach the understanding of reason. Reasoning through simplicity states that the reason for the perishability of things is composition, and since the soul is simple, it is not perishable. In the first form, the theory of Socratic dualism is challenged by stating a rival theory. According to the theory of pseudo-phenomenology, the soul is considered a quality of the body and it has been considered as the harmony of the body. Socrates' answers are mostly expressions of the corrupt devices of the harmony theory; The non-subordination of the soul to the body in all cases, the lack of difference between good and bad spirits, are two corrupt requirements in these forms. In the second form, it is stated that the soul may be immortal, but it is not possible that it is not perishable. In his answer, Socrates resorted to the theory of "likeness" and considers the soul to benefit from the form of life, which is immortal by default and does not accept the form of death. They have said that in this answer, eternal and eternal benefit from the form of life has not been proven.