Analysis of the Phaedo
The Phaedo depicts Socrates death and the conversations leading up to his final day. It contains four arguments based on the immortal soul and really starts to discuss the idea of Forms. I would like to say that although I would love to argue and try to explain the idea of more than one of Socrates arguments, I think that it would take more than one page to do so. Therefore, I would like to discuss the Theory of Recollection and how the Socratic view of death differs from the physicalist approach.
The Theory of Recollection states that when we are born we possess the knowledge that we gain later in life. This implies that in order to gain a life time of knowledge, the soul had to be living before gaining a physical…show more content… He believes death is not bad because it frees the soul of what the body restricts it from. Socrates entertains the idea that dying is a good thing because of the experiences that come from it. Such as how if all the souls are gathered in one place then he would love to interact with people he wished to meet. Socrates views death as just another change that happens to the soul and one of which that is good. The physical world is left behind in order to participate in a world filled with people who also pursue wisdom. The physicalistic approach of death differs drastically. It defines death as the end and provides the idea that once our body stops working our soul no longer works. Since the body fundamentally defines us, our souls do not separate from our physical body when we die. As if we go to sleep without ever waking up and we are in a sense of unconsciousness. Really the main difference between what Socrates believes and that of the physicalistic approach is that where one believes that there is more to the physical world one does not. Yet this is where I agree with Socrates. The physicalistic approach believes that what cannot be judged by the senses is not real, basically from what I understand, anything that is not tangible. Yet although you cannot see or touch your conscious does that prove it to be