Transcript Slide 1

Philosophy 1050:
Introduction to Philosophy
Week 7: Plato and the soul
Forms and The Soul
 “When Socrates finished, Cebes intervened:
Socrates, he said, everything else you said is
excellent, I think, but men find it very hard to
believe what you said about the soul. They think
that after it has left the body it no longer exists
anywhere, but that it is destroyed and dissolved on
the day the man dies, as soon as it leaves the
body; and that, on leaving it, it is dispersed like
breath or smoke, has flown away and gone and is
no longer anything anywhere.” (70a)
Putting together the pieces:
Socrates and Immortality
 We want to trace a route from:
– The idea of the FORMS – actual things that we
can know about, but have never perceived with
our senses
To:
– The claim that the soul is IMMORTAL.
The Forms (Ideas)
 -Do we say that there is such a thing as the
Just itself, or not?
– -We do say so, by Zeus.
 -And the Beautiful, and the Good?
– -Of course.
 -And have you ever seen any of those
things with your eyes?
– -In no way. (65d)
The Forms (Ideas)
 “We say that there is something that is
equal. I do not mean a stick equal to a stick
or a stone to a stone, or anything of that
kind, but something else beyond all these,
the Equal itself. Shall we say that this exists
or not?
– Indeed we shall, by Zeus, said Simmias, most
definitely.
 Whence have we acquired the knowledge of
it?” (74a-b)
The Forms (Ideas)
 If the forms cannot be seen or otherwise
sensed, how do we have knowledge of
them?
 How are the Forms related to the ordinary
objects we see around us?
One reconstruction (there are others
that are just as good!)
 1. We have knowledge of something that we have
never used our body to perceive.
 2. Therefore we have knowledge that we did not
get through our bodies.
 3. This knowledge comes from recollection of
things that are invisible and eternal (how can we
tell?)
 4. Therefore we must have known these things
before we were born (why?)
 5. Therefore the soul must have existed before we
were born and can continue to exist after we die.
Plato, recollection and knowledge:
tying down the argument
 If Socrates is successful, he will have made
an argument that goes from the existence of
the Forms to the immortality of his soul.
 What would Sam Miller say about Socrates’
argument? What would Gretchen Weirob
say?
 What parts of the argument are well
established? What parts are open to doubt?
Why?
Plato and the Forms: Review
 What do you think Socrates would say about
the question of personal identity? What
would he say in the Teleportation case? In
the Julia North/Mary Frances Beaudine
case?