soul and body theories Essay - 774 Words

Name Course Lecturer Date of submission Soul and Body Theory Many of the ancient theories composed by early Greek philosophers were based on rationalism and empiricism. Empiricism refers to acquiring knowledge through experimental insight while on the other hand rationalism is acquiring of knowledge through ones practical understanding. Socrates work is studied in depths up to date, example being â€Å"Republic of Plato† whose author was Plato. Socrates was one of the world’s most influential philosopher. From the magnitude of his work, Socrates was considered to be ahead of his time. He came up with elegant theories that brought light to some of the puzzling aspects of life and death. One of†¦show more content†¦He says that the simple things always remain the same and rarely undergo any change. Therefore the mind being a simple thing will not decompose while the body being composite is inevitable to change its characteristics and eventually it will decompose. Socrates brilliantly brings out the difference between soul and body, which suggests that the functions of the body and soul are very different. He further demonstrated this by showing the difference between the methods of operating the soul, and those of operating the body (Phaedo, 2000). The primary aspect of the soul is to simply understand the composite things. The soul does its own investigation of finding what is pure, true, immortal and unchanging. The body is composite, therefore it cannot understand itself, and it feeds information to the mind through the action of the senses. However things such as beauty, goodness and justice cannot be detected by senses. This means that we can’t acquire the knowledge of reality through senses because the object of sense always changes in one way or another. Only the soul gets to know what is true and real. In the soul and mind theory, Socrates never supported the idea of sensory interaction. His opinion to the body influences were, â€Å"†¦every pleasure and pain provides, as it were, another nail to rivet the soul to the body and to weld them together.† Socrates theory further brought about a rationale for life and death, which suggested thatShow MoreRelatedThe Theory Of The Soul And Body944 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death† (Phaedo, 64a). One’s soul is the key to knowledge, but the body tends to bring the soul down. In order to strive for that knowledge, the body must be separated from the soul. Socrates believed that part of accomplishing this, one must concentrate on the well-being of their soul and work on being self-aware. To him, most people didn’t have this ability, hence the reason why he said â€Å"those who practiceRead MoreThe Theory Of The Body And Soul By Descartes, Hobbes, And Hume1838 Words   |  8 Pagescountered the claims presented. 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