Plato/Socrates & St. Augustine Essay

The realm of the cerebrate spell, t each(prenominal)y to Plato in his work Phaedo, is extrapolated by Socrates, that is, a part who is within reason similarly essential admit to the fundamental truths regarding aliveness after death (the view locate of Plato in this paper will be seen with Socrates as Phaedo was written to express Platos viewpoint through and through Socrates, so, henceforth, whenever Socrates is menti aced it is Platos perspective).That is to say, in Socrates explanation of immortality, there remains the observation post that the proboscis and the sense are non etern al wholenessy combined except the some adept is grounded in the sy stand through emotions, and ferine says of tendersity.  When the intelligence is released from such torpor, it because reclines anchor into its previous non-corporeal state to either rest, or to transform and reinvent itself in the world.  The someonefulness, fit in to Socrates, is that which is in us that commands and it is the body that serves.  The chase paper will explore the character of near and plague as it is verbalised through Plato/Socrates and Augustine.  There will be comparing and contrasting points on this issue.Augustine believes in the essential goodness of humanity thus, with the internalization of the soul as mentioned in Platos writing, it seems that two philosophers are in treaty thus far ab reveal the temper of humanity.  There are however change degrees of good and atrocious.  In either philosopher it is non merely a question of good and devilish but of reason in a man.  It is reasong that leads to the choice of good or evil.  Augustine believes for a fair(a) somebody, the pursuit of author would be a safe action. However, one who served their possess passions would be apt to inferno. By maintaining, Augustine suggests, a well managed ideology and supposition of moral value, the pursuit of power would be just as viabl e an cream as piety.            Augustine intended to explain the pattern source of sin was, in fact, use. by his interpretation of the fall of man, Augustine rationalized that the acts committed by Adam and Eve, the eating of the apple, were non the genuine sins but instead, the decision to eat the apple, and the allegiance to the act was the point at which the sin occurred. However, with Platos writing, there is redemption for humanity.  With the appraisal of redemption being in need, both philosophers are admitting the proneness that humanity has for evil.  Plato suggests that the human soul is created out of divine will, and that anything created out of deity is good.Thus, duration St. Augustines driftion marks humanity as evil, Platos soul marks them as clear of being good.  Plato believes that the soul is the image of divinity in the soul there is put in an unceasing being of transformation.  The reason able man moldiness then accept the dichotomy of the body and soul, as well as accept their harmony he must distance the creative thinker that the body and the soul are one.  The body is mortal, and can render to dissolution, but fit in to Plato, the soul is indissoluble.  Thus, according to Plato the human body is evil while the soul is good making a dichotomy of good and evil and the mental object for each in each human.The body commands emotions, and its fate lies within those external circumstances, that is genius, but the soul, in Socrates view is above nature.  The soul is a higher self.  As the inlet to Phaedo states, The human being alone has the thought of truth and justice and love, which is the consciousness of God.  And the soul becoming much(prenominal) conscious of these, becomes more conscious of her own immortality (23).  The soul hinges upon the actualization that she is immortal.  In that consciousness, and in that state of bei ng, there exists God, and all that is immortal and the goodness of humanity.            Therefore, Socrates is hard to define the perimeters of immortality, and the fact that a reasonable man cannot indubitably believe that the body and the soul will perish, but must in fact take adoption to the soul existing at a higher aim of existence, that is, at the level with God.  Socrates is placing a belief system in his dialectic, and in so doing he goes into analyzing the existence of God, or the intangible being that is the divine.  In Phaedo Socrates circulates his ideas around the immortality of the soul and the acceptance of this by the reasoning man on the backside of the dimension that God portrays.By dimension, make out it to say that God, in divine right, is perfect.  It is in that perfection that man may image allusions to his reasoning, and by so doing, reason that since the soul is of God, then man himself is immorta l, as Plato wrights, An evil God, or an indifferent God king have had the power but not the will, to preserve usBut is he is perfect, he must will that all rational beings should partake of that perfection which he himself is (23).  Life after death then is a certainty on a celestial level.  On this argument in Phaedo, Cebes states, k at one timeledge is simply recollection, if true besides necessarily implies a previous time in which we have learned now what we recollect.  But this would be impossible unless our soul had been in some place ahead existing in the form of man here then is another trial impression of the souls immortality (Plato 60).  Knowledge is something that is acquired through a previous experience.  A reasoning man can deduce that because he is of a reasonable mind he gained knowledge through previous experience.  The idea of mutating and changing, and being in a semi-transcendental state while in ones body is something that is prevale nt in Socrates ism.Augustine created this identical room for a shift in the combining good and evil of the human body and the divine soul. By suggesting that intent was the source of sin, rather than actions themselves, one would be able to absolve himself of sin by believing that he was following(a) a righteous path.  Thus Augustines philosophy suggests, as Plato suggests that there is redemption for humanity.  twain philosophers then meet an agreement point by expressing the truth of the evil nature of humanity.  Both philosophers agree that human nature is evil and it is only the soul which is demonstrate to be pure and by following that pure pathway of the soul/God, the evil nature, the body or intent, can be expiated.            However, while Augustine admitted to redemption for humanity through following the soul he to a fault stated that, apparently virtuous acts, care prayer, sacrifice, or the risk of ones life c ould in fact stem from vicious, self-regarding motives (Augustine).1This understanding called into question the root motivations of all people. However, looking at the actions of another, one could not see these motivations, and therefore, could not place concept on their righteousness or validity.  It seems that as Augustine progressed in his philosophy he became more ambiguous as to whether or not humanity could be saved from their own evil intent because of their incapability of selflessness.            Augustine talk on this as well. There was no rational process by which one could judge the actions of another other than ones personal reason. Reason, therefore would become the most important of the human virtues. Augustine matte up that reason, in the mind of any man, could not be corrupted by the passions of evil or by the sinful motivations of others.            Thus, the division point for each philosopher became whether or not humanity wanted to be good, as it were.  Plato states that the soul is good and that every person has a soul and thus a pathway to goodness and God, while Augustine likewise admitted to their being a soul he suggests that the human race was too egoistic to follow that pathway because their evil intentions overruled their go for to be good.WORKS CITEDAugustine.  Confessions.  R.S. Pine-Coffin.  Longman.  New tactual sensation Edition.  2005.Hundert, E.J. Augustine and the Sources of the Divided Self. Political Theory. 20 No. 1          (1992) 86-123Plato.  Phaedo.    <http//olldownload.libertyfund.org/EBooks/Plato_0407.pdf>