Print this page

Is the soul immortal? The teachings of Plato

What is philosophy and death according to Plato What is philosophy and death according to Plato

Plato was a disciple of Socrates, Plato is credited with the authorship of "The Banquet," "Republic" and "Phaedo." As well as for Jesus, his method of teaching were the parables, for Plato is the Socratic Method or Mayeutic dialogues. The Phaedo is a dialogue, that tells the last moments of the life of Socrates and it is at this time that the teacher of Plato gives to his friends and disciples his final teachings: the immortality of the soul and life after death.
In a burlesque tone at the beginning of his teachings, he argues that the true art of philosophy is the exercising in dying. The meditation according to Plato consists in separating the soul from the body, concentrating the soul in itself. Thence, he affirms:

"Those who philosophize in the correct sense of the word are exercised in dying"
Book Phaedo, of Plato.

The theses of Plato to demonstrate the immortality of the soul are:
1) The proof of the continuous generation of the opposites (Phaedo 70-73):
When there are two opposites, the one implies the other, such as sleeping and being awake are contrary. Awakening comes from sleeping and vice versa. In analogy, dying and living are opposites. According to Plato, this would mean that the livings come from the deads and vice versa.
2) The knowledge by analogy (Phaedo 73-77):
That is to say "learning" in many cases, would only be a remembering. That is, we carry with us a prior knowledge of the things, so when a knowledge is acquired this brings another that would not be but from a "memory" of another life.
3)The indissolubility of immaterial entities and the existence of the plane of the essences or the world of the ideas (Phaedo 78-80):
That is to say, exists by itself "the good", "the beautiful". The soul according to Platon would oscillate between two planes the physical (substances) and that of the essences (ideas). Being the first temporary and changeable and the other eternal. According to Plato the soul is an immaterial being, and therefore simple and immutable, that belongs to the plane of the essences.
4) The principle of exclusion of opposites (Phaedo 102-107):
When an entity carries in itself an opposite, it excludes the opposite of the one that it carries within itself, without necessarily being its opposite. For example: the opposite to life is death. We call immortal what does not admit death, then we affirm that life does not admit death either, we conclude by saying that the soul carries within itself the principle of immortality.