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Socrates Philosophy Chapter 3 Study Guide

1113 Words5 Pages

Kevin Yuan
Professor Ananda
PHIL 101
16 July 2023
Chapter 3 Paper
Who am I? What is the connection between our spirit and our body? What becomes of our souls after we die? These questions are important to human minds because they help people understand themselves better and develop their own meaning in life. Philosophical questions are some of the most important in people's lives, and it challenges them to reflect and meditate on life and human existence. Great Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato laid a solid foundation for the future of philosophy, and their contributions to the discipline have been studied for centuries. Socrates' view of soul and body set the groundwork for philosophers to observe and challenge, and many important …show more content…

He believes that everyone has an unchangeable, eternal spirit that lives on even after their bodies die and perish. Socrates promotes dualism, the view that reality is divided into spiritual and physical realms. The spiritual realm, according to Socrates, is perfect, everlasting, immortal, and unchanging, whereas the physical realm is mortal, imperfect, and always changing. Socrates also believes that our souls pursue true wisdom and perfection. Although our souls yearn for knowledge and perfection, they are unable to reach their full potential because they are bound to imperfect and mortal human bodies. Socrates contended that our immortal souls, which reside in the ideal spiritual realm, are pulled into the physical realm by human bodies. However, Socrates claimed that reason is an effective tool that our souls could use in the physical realm to communicate with our imperfect bodies. Because our spirits and bodies come from different realms, it would be difficult for them to connect fully without reason. Socrates' concept of dualism brought in a new era in philosophy, and his achievements and contributions to philosophy will never be …show more content…

However, there are challenges to Socrates' theory of dualism from opposing positions. For example, the female philosopher Diotima provided an opposite viewpoint to Socrates, claiming that our souls could not be immortal because our bodies correspond to our souls and they are inseparable. Diotima believed that physical characteristics such as hair, skin, and blood were constantly changing. Furthermore, Diotima believed that the same changes were taking place in our souls. Not only is our physical body constantly changing, but so is our spiritual mind, as we have diverse thoughts, ideas, and emotions over time. Diotima added that, unlike the gods, humans are neither immortal nor eternal, and that everything in this world would perish eventually; thus, comparing ourselves to the gods and their unchanging, immortal features is unfair. As Socrates' concept of dualism became increasingly popular, more objections and competing beliefs were raised against him. Although Diotima's statement that mortal human beings cannot be immortal in an imperfect world strikes the core of Socrates' philosophy, it raises further questions regarding the relationship between souls and

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