Viewpoints of Plato and Descartes on a Soul - Essay Example

Preface: Being from a Christian background, I have been raised with a strong concept of soul, which plays a key role in my life. Viewpoints of Plato and Descartes on soul and its relation to knowledge resonated with my personal thoughts and experiences. As a result, when I came into the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program at the University of Virginia, I decided to delve deeper into the subject. Overview: I often used to wonder why people are different from each other, why are some considered to be intelligent and others not so intelligent. If God has created us all why this discrimination? Why do mannerisms and habits of one individual differ from that of another? Do we carry memory from the past? Where are the information stored? The body perishes and mingles with the earth, then how do we recollect things? All religions in the world preach that the soul is immortal and that the body is merely a sheath for the soul. I strongly believe the individual’s soul is the essential part or spiritual self, leading humans to act, feel, inspire and energize the mind with a conscious faculty. This soul is the undying entity every one of us carries from each life to the next. The soul is immortal and never gets destroyed. This Capstone Project will endeavor to discover this truth through the works of two great Philosophers, namely, Plato and Descartes. The existence of the soul defines the human characteristics. The Dualism Philosophy believes that the body and the soul are separate entities. At death, the body decomposes and merges with the elements from which it was created but the soul is imperishable. Human beings feel, act, see touch or taste through a driving force. That driving force is the soul. The two philosophers amply explain the immortality of the soul and whether it still possesses power and wisdom after the body dies. Methodology Having indulged in deep challenging discourses on philosophy since childhood, helped broaden my horizon and initiated contemplation. Finding a thesis question is necessary to take the plunge. My thesis question has changed several times but I have now zeroed down to the immortality of the soul. The main motivation for embracing such a deep and challenging topic is because it is part of who I am and how I think. The theories of Plato and Descartes particularly appealed to me as it resonated with my own personal philosophy. In the Capstone proposal I propose to use the theories of these two eminent philosophers to endorse my belief on the immortality of the soul. Reading and evaluating their work gave me courage to move ahead with my project. The primary sources used in my thesis under instructions from my mentor, are: Plato (429-347BC) Plato used the dialectic method, a pattern of argumentation that examines issues from various sides. According to him, hope of survival comes naturally to the philosopher. Socrates, through his conversations with Phaedo, tells his fellows that he is not afraid of death, and that when looking at the big picture of things, our time on earth is short compared to our souls or eternity or the universal realm. Socrates states, “For in death alone will the soul be divorced from the flesh, alone by itself, and in this life we shall, I think approach nearest to knowledge when to the best of our ability (67a).” Socrates describes the body and soul in Phaedo saying, “The soul is more similar than body to the invisible, whereas body is more similar to that which is seen (79b).” When the soul separates from the human body at death, the concern for soul characterizes the philosophical life. The attachment to the mortal body serves as a distraction. He explains in pursuit of the truth, suddenly one may feel hungry or sleepy. The bodily needs thus interfere with the study. Hence, Plato concluded that one may look forward to death as a release from bodily limitations (67d). He firmly believed that the soul continues to exist and function after the body dies. Plato further argued by analogy that life must come from death and death from life (71c-d). The shift to death is a mere experience of transition from birth and those who have just taken birth were among the dead. They have experienced the transition called birth. The human souls rotate in the cycle of birth and death. This clarifies that the soul will continue to exist even when the body dies and means that the soul existed before the birth too. Plato further added the conception of the role of the Forms. The Form of beauty causes the beauty of any beautiful thing; the Form of Equality causes the equality of any pair of equal things. The soul is living, it must participate in the Form of Life, and thus it cannot ever die (105d). The soul is thus imperishable forever. In Meno, he describes the recollections of the soul, which endorses that the soul never dies; the soul is immortal. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) René Descartes adopted the method of doubt to reach the truth. He felt reason should follow and arrive at certain philosophical truths. There should be no further doubts left after this, which meant that the foundation had to be sound. This approach was known as the Method of Doubt. In the Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes proves the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. He also brings out the real distinction between the mind and the body. Descartes’ Cognito ergo sum, “I think, therefore I am,” is regarded as the essence of dualism, the old-fashioned notion that the mind is something distinct from its mechanism, the brain and the body. His views expressed in The Passions of the Soul are similar to that of Plato. Descartes’ Dualism Theory concentrates on the mind (a non-graspable entity) working in conjunction with the body (a materialistic mechanism). He demonstrates that thoughts are one way to differentiate between the animate and the inanimate body. He explains that anything that we experience as being in us, which we can see exists in inanimate bodies, must be attributed to the body. All else which we cannot conceive as belonging to the body, must be attributed to the soul (Cottingham, 1988). Descartes further explains that movements of the muscles and all other sensations depend upon the nerves. These nerves or little thread like tubes contains ‘animal spirit’ which are also bodies. They have no other property except that they move quickly. Hence, all such functions belong solely to the body. He thus concludes that there is nothing in us, which we must attribute to our soul except our thoughts (Cottingham). Soul is a unity he says. Even though we have two eyes and two ears, we have a single visual mental impression. There is one single physical organ, namely the pineal gland, which mediates between the body and the soul. In the Second Meditation, through the thought-experiment of wax he explains the immortality of the soul. When the wax is brought close to the fire, it loses all its sensible properties like shape, color, hardness, and form, but the wax remains. What is it that is constant in the wax even when the form changes? The geometrical shape of the wax is now seen in a melted form, which can again be converted into another shape through a process. Similarly, even when the body perishes, the soul remains. This soul again acquires another body (another shape) to return to earth. Conclusion Considering the views of two philosophers, we can conclude that the knowledge is contained in the soul. The soul’s connection to knowledge or storing of memories is the root on which our everyday actions, thoughts, and feelings are based upon. Humanity’s unique quality of the soul brings meaning into our lives. The soul helps us to yearn and connect with knowledge creating our daily feelings and experiences. Our most basic beliefs and knowledge about the world are based solely on the soul and its connection to our neurological network and cognitive abilities. The soul has recollections after transition from birth to death. In the next transition to birth, it brings with it the knowledge from the previous life. It may further add to this knowledge by more experiences through the new body and the new brain. Our most basic beliefs and knowledge about the world are based solely on the soul and its connection to our neurological network and cognitive abilities. In summary, the soul connects us to a higher power allowing humanity to embrace and value the relevancy of the spiritual gift human beings experience every day of our life. If human beings remain conscious at all times that soul is immortal and that we carry memories from the past, we would refrain from committing sins. The world would be a better place to live in. Reference: The Passions of the Soul, In: Selected Philosophical Writings, Translated by: J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1988, pp. 329 Ibid (331). Read More