PHL 201 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Immortal Souls
16 May 2016
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Document Summary
Plato famously distinguished between two worlds, or realms of being. The first was an imperfect world of matter in endless flux, in which we live our lives in deep ignorance; the second was a world of stability, of unchanging eternal entities, such a perfect exemplar of its own kind. Plato believes that we naturally strive to approximate the eternal world more closely, and each step we take in the direction of better understanding is a step in the direction of the eternal. As the cosmos is divided into two kinds of being, so, to, are we: plato conceives of persons as consisting of changing perishable bodies and unchanging and immortal souls. So his division between two realms of being cuts directly through each of us. Plato distinguishes soul and body with respect to their very different susceptibilities to change. Diotima, a character in one of plato"s dialogues, expresses the opposing view.
