The soul-harmony argument in the Plato’s Phaedo
Keywords:
Plato. Phaedo. Immortality of the soul. Harmony-Soul Argument.Abstract
Plato’s dialogue called Phaedo concludes the tetralogy of platonic dialogues about the trial and death of Socrates. In this dialogue, the central theme is a debate about the immortality of the soul, being proposed four arguments in favour of this metaphysical thesis. The present paper consists in presenting, in detail, an objection evolved by the character Simmias against the third argument showed by Socrates. This objection became known as the Harmony-Soul Argument. First, we expose present themes in this dialogue, such as the philosopher’s relationship with death and the first three arguments in favour of the immortality of the soul. Then, we deal with Simmias’s objection, using the comments of Ricardo Salles (2017).
References
APOLLONI, David. Plato’s Affinity Argument for the Immortality of the Soul. Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 34, Number 1, pp. 5-32, 1996.
BARROS, Francisco de Assis Nogueira. Fédon de Platão: Argumentos sobre a Imortalidade da Alma e Tradução Parcial / Francisco de Assis Nogueira Barros; orientador Daniel Rossi Nunes Lopes. Tese (Doutorado) – Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo. – São Paulo, 2018.
ELTON, Matthew. The Role of the Affinity Argument in the Phaedo. Phronesis, Vol. 42, Issue 3, Leiden, 1997.
PLATÃO, Fédon / introdução, versão do grego e notas de Maria Teresa Schiappa de Azevedo, Livraria Minerva, Coimbra, 1988.
SALLES, Ricardo. Soul as Harmony in Phaedo 85e–86d and Stoic Pneumatic Theory. In: HARTE, V. & WOOLF, R. Rereading ancient philosophy: Old Chestnuts and Sacred Cows. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Renan Soares Esteves, Pedro Henrique Araújo Santiago
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.