Analysis of the Argument on the Soul in Pheado (Essay Sample)

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Analysis of the Argument on the Soul in Pheado
The Phaedo is one of the dialogues of Plato’s middle period which are extremely dense with philosophy. Alongside the Republic, Phaedo contains the first ever extended conversation of the theory of forms. It also contains four arguments for explaining the immortality of the soul as well as other arguments in support of philosophical life. Thus, Phaedo emerges as one of the most read Plato’s dialogues of ancient Greek philosophy. This essay examines the four arguments of the soul according to the dialogue of Phaedo by Plato. By providing a philosophical inquest into Socrates’ final hours, this dialogue provides a compelling belief concerning the fate of the soul once a person has died (115a). The argument from opposites, the theory of recollection, the theory of affinity and a final argument which is presented as a response to Cebes’ objection provide the basis for the philosophy of the soul according to Plato.
In the argument from opposites, Socrates presents an ontological perspective of the principle of non-contradiction. When this law is applied to Plato’s ontology, it appears that it puts certain limitations to each of the distinct relationships that exist between particulars and the forms that are common among them, more so pertaining to the ability of those particulars to change. For particulars, according to the law of non-contradiction, it is impossible to share in opposite forms with regard to the same thing (69e). Such particular stops sharing the original form, such as form of shortness concerning Socrates and shares in the opposite, the form of tallness concerning Socrates. Thus, particulars can change forms whereby they share. For instance, when a person becomes taller through growth, they are no longer sharing in the form of shortness in relation to them (72e). It follows that since life is the opposite of death, it is only rational to state that just as living people change to dead people, in the same way, the dead must also change to living. It implies from this argument that life and death are phenomena that are in a constant cycle such that death can never be a permanent end.
Furthermore, in the argument from the theory of recollection, Cebes’ talks of the soul’s immortality as being proven by the theory of Socrates that learning is a form of recollection (73c). To provide evidence for this theory, he makes mention of cases where people are able to recollect answers to certain questions which they previously did not seem to have when such knowledge is elicited from them by means of proper methods. Such an argument appears to be a response to the Meno in which Socrates questions knowledge concerning basic geometry from a boy who is a slave by questioning him in order to guide him towards the right direction. When asked by Simmias to expound on this argument, Socrates explicates that recollection takes place when a person hears or sees or by any other means perceives something and not only gets knowledge of the same but also thinks about something of different knowledge (85e). It implies that the soul has thus existed before birth which further implies that its life goes beyond that of the life of the body.
In the third argument, which is the argument from affinity, the idea that the soul bears likeness to a higher reality level appears to dominate the dialogue. As such, it provides a distinction between the things which are invisible, immaterial and immortal from those that are visible, material and mortal. Since the soul is part of the former group and the body the latter group, it turns out that the soul is, thus, immortal (69e). Evidently, there are two forms of existence in this argument: the physical world which is visible, mortal, composite, unintelligible and always transforming, and then the invisible world which is divine, non-composite, intelligible, and always the same. Socrates tries to drive the point that a soul which fails to be appropriately separated from the body soon turns into a ghost which will long come back to the flesh, while the detached soul dwells freely in the celestial realms.
The final argument is presented as an objection to Cebes’ response. His response to Cebes involves a long discussion which ends in his final argument, founded on the theory of forms. A form is not like the qualities of this world and as such it is perfectly itself and not its opposite. For instance, the beauty form has no aspect of ugliness at all (74c). On the other hand, a person who is beautiful might be beautiful in relation to what other people see, but not beautiful according to the perception of others. The beauty form is therefore absolutely beautiful and not ugly in any way. Since nothing can be its opp