Reconsidering the Essential Nature and Indestructibility of the Soul in the Affinity Argument of the Phaedo

Rhizomata 11 (1):77-104 (2023)
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Abstract

This paper offers a fresh examination of a salient distinction located at the beginning of the Affinity Argument between the composite (τὸ σύνθετον) and the incomposite (τὸ ἀσύνθετον). I offer reasons for why Plato may have intended for us to assume that the soul is an incomposite unity in its essential nature. I then substantiate this claim by reviving an ancient interpretation to the Affinity Argument according to which the soul is of the same metaphysical kind as the Forms. I thus suggest that the argument may be seen as supporting the basic indestructibility cum immortality of all souls.

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References found in this work

Parts : a Study in Ontology.Peter Simons - 1987 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 2:277-279.
Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity.David Sedley - 2007 - University of California Press.
The practice of a philosopher.Raphael Woolf - 2004 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 26:97-129.
The Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo.James Coulter & L. G. Westerink - 1979 - American Journal of Philology 100 (3):437.

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