Why does Socrates think that the body is an impediment to the soul?
katherinetinoco
Phaedo_Bodyasanimpedimenttothesoul.pptxAn Analysis of Soul and Body
Plato’s Phaedo:
Background
Socrates offers insight on a philosophers standpoint on death:
Philosophers welcome death.
Death is the separation of body and soul.
The true meaning of Philosophy comes from the acquisition of knowledge and truth.
Philosopher resent the body and see it as a hindrance to knowledge acquisition
Death in
Phaedo
‹#›
Philosophy’s end goal is not to change society but to achieve the truth and face death with no fear.
‹#›
Why does Socrates think that the body is an impediment to the soul?
Question
raised
Basis
Question
Author’s
arguments
‹#›
Opposing Ideal: The body is not the biggest hindrance to the soul.
What impedes the soul more is strong attachments (i.e. fear)
Pain comes from undesired pleasures
To connect or find reasoning is to negate the theory of true philosophy
“Death, for Socrates, is a release from this pain and worry.”
Emily Austin’s Fear and Death in Plato; Phaedo: The Philosophical Life and How to Die
Strong attachment to any external good breeds the fear of death, because death is the greatest threat to the continued enjoyment of those things to which one is attached. The greater one’s attachment to the goods of this life, the more one resents and fears death. If one wants to minimize one’s fear of death, then, a prescription might be to lessen one’s attachment to relationships and other external goods. Socrates, it seems, recommends precisely this strategy, not merely because it is a handy trick for combating the fear of death, but because, I argue, he truly believes these goods lack significant positive value.
Author’s
arguments
‹#›
In favor: Body impedes the soul from knowledge
highlights important arguments that Socrates makes
acknowledges the body as the spirit's jail
Affirms that through escape and divergence, knowledge is possible
Necessary to acknowledge polarity of the soul and body
Maria Giannakopoulou’s, Plato on Soul and Body
This, in effect, sets out the view of the soul that Socrates is to defend in much more detail. So far as we are concerned it implies that body and soul are distinct, that they are capable of independent existence, that the soul alone can achieve genuine knowledge, and that the sensations and feelings of the body can be a hindrance to knowledge.
Physical desires limit our thought and keep us in the physical world
Desires
‹#›
Having to fulfill our physical duties and pleasures is an impediment .
Necessity
Novel
Contribution
The truth only comes from giving up pleasures of the body.
Knowledge
The discipline of Philosophy will teach why truth is necessary.
Philosophy
Freedom (Soul)
Prison (Body)
my agreement*
“ I am afraid that other people do not realize that the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death.”
And it is then that the soul of the philosopher most disdains the body, flees from it and seeks to be by itself?
“ A man who finds no pleasure in such things and has no part in them is thought by the majority not to deserve to live and to be close to death; the man, that is, who does not care for the pleasures of the body “
Evidence
‹#›
3
2
1
64a
65a
65d
