The Forms and the Soul In The Phaedo

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The Forms and the SoulIn The Phaedo Republic

• The execution of Socrates is an occasion in the
  Phaedo for a discussion of the nature of the soul
  with reference to the Forms
• In the Republic Plato characterizes the soul
  differently than he does in the Phaedo and
  expands upon the Forms

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Platos Forms

• Argument for Existence of Forms
• Similar objects exist can be known to be
  similar
• e.g. Leo Leona the lions
• There must exist something, the Form of
  BEING-A-LION, that makes them similar which is
  known when similarity is recognized

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• Forms continue exist even if the objects that
  they inform stop existing
• Even if Leo dies, Leona remains a lion similar to
  other lions
• So, Forms do not depend for their existence on
  sensible/physical objects
• Rather, sensible/physical objects depend for
  their existence on forms
• Forms are eternal unchanging since they are
  neither sensible nor physical

4

• Forms exist eternally in a separate realm they
  do not exist in sensible/physical objects
• Forms known innately by a priori reason, not a
  posteriori sensation
• Forms are (like)
• Exemplars or Perfect Models
• Expressed by good definitions
• Laws of Science, Morality, Mathematics
• Abstract Designs or Instruction Sets

5

• Forms are the natural targets or objects of the
  rational faculty the soul
• Knowledge is the activity for which the rational
  faculty is designed
• Knowing the forms is the aim of the rational
  faculty
• Knowing the forms constitutes happiness for the
  rational faculty the soul the self

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• Hierarchy of Being Value Governs the Universe
• Forms are more real than physical or sensible
  objects
• Forms are eternal
• Forms determine the physical
• Forms are better than physical objects since they
  are more real than physical objects the true
  objectives of the rational/deliberative soul

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• Form of the Good the supreme form
• highest in both value and being
• informs all things
• Notice
• apparently, there is no form of the Bad
• apparently, all things are good
• how then can we correctly judge anything to be
  bad or evil?

8

• The Metaphor of the Cave
• note
• cave is prison not home
• degrees of reality
• illusory sensation
• dependence of all things on the sun
• those who remain in the cave disparage the
  knowledge of the enlighted
• process of dialectical ascent

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Platos Conception of the Self /Soul

• I my soul
• My soul is different from my body
• My soul is immaterial imperceptible
• My soul includes my cognitive (and maybe my
  affective) capacities
• Soul is the seat of knowledge body is the
  conduit of illusory sensation

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• Soul has innate knowledge of the unchanging
  principles that govern all aspects of the
  universe Forms
• Soul is immortal body is mortal
• Soul is naturally determined to pursue what is
  good and valuable
• The body can draw the soul away from the good
  towards what is not good
• So, death of body is an advantage to the soul

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Who and What Am I Essentially?

• Your essence is what is necessary for your
  existence
• To discover your essence try a thought
  experiment?
• Is my capacity for cognition essential to me?
• Is my body essential to me?
• Might I exist without my body?
• Might I exist without a body?

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Am I Merely a Computer Program?Is My Mind Only
Pure Software?

• Compare computers and programs
• distinguish hardware and software
• distinguish algorithm and program
• Are you related to your body in the way in which
  a program or algorithm is related to a computer?

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Phaedo Arguments for Immortality

• Argument from Recollection
• In sensation we know only the particular
• e.g. in sensing two approximately equal sticks,
  we sense the particular sticks but not
  Equality-in-general (i.e. the Form of equality)
• Sensing the equal sticks may make us think of or
  enable our understanding of Equality-in-general
• The only way that sensing could enable
  understanding of what is fully general is if
  sensing is a mnemonic cue for something known
  innately and a priori independent of, and prior
  to, sensation

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• This knowledge of the fully general/universal
  must therefore exist in us innately before the
  possibility of sensation, i.e. before birth
• Hence, we must exist before the birth of the body
• If we exist before the birth of the body, then we
  can exist without our bodies
• Since we are identified with our souls, our souls
  exist before and independently of our bodies
• Hence, death of the body does not imply death of
  the soul

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Meno and Phaedo Compared

• Notice that the Phaedos argument from
  recollection is similar to the proposal in the
  Meno that recognition (i.e. classification or
  categorization) is really the matching of an
  innately known form against a perceptual
  experience
• In the Meno Socrates uses the situation of the
  Slave Boy to illustrate the existence of innate
  knowledge of the forms.
• The uneducated slave has never learned geometry
• Yet, as revealed by the slaves correct replies
  to Socrates leading questions, the slave
  innately knows a complex theorem of geometry

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Argument from Simplicity

• What is simple cannot be decomposed or otherwise
  destroyed and is therefore immortal
• The soul is simple because
• the soul is non-sensible and, hence, simple
• the soul is that which has knowledge of what is
  simple and indestructible (i.e. forms)
• so, it is likely similar to the simple and
  indestructible
• so, the soul is likely simple
• The soul, as simple, is indestructible and,
  hence, immortal

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Argument from the souls essence

• By definition, the soul is alive (just as by
  definition, the number 3 is odd)
• What is true by definition is necessarily true
• Hence, it is necessarily true that the soul is
  alive
• Hence, it is impossible that the soul not live
• Hence, the soul is immortal

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Contrast Republic Phaedo

• In the Phaedo the soul is represented as
• Simple, without internal parts, and, hence,
  immortal
• In the Republic the soul is represented as
• Exhibiting internal conflict between three parts
• Reason
• Spirit (emotion)
• Appetite (desire)
• A tripartite soul must be complex rather than
  simple and hence decomposable, destructible and
  mortal
• Eg Dementia as decomposition/destruction
• Am I the rational part of the complex soul?
• Am I immortal if my soul is complex?