Seite - 476 - in The Complete Plato
Bild der Seite - 476 -
Text der Seite - 476 -
sure that you have put the argument with Harmonia in a manner that I could
never have expected. For when Simmias was mentioning his difficulty, I quite
imagined that no answer could be given to him, and therefore I was surprised
at finding that his argument could not sustain the first onset of yours, and not
impossibly the other, whom you call Cadmus, may share a similar fate.
Nay, my good friend, said Socrates, let us not boast, lest some evil eye
should put to flight the word which I am about to speak. That, however, may
be left in the hands of those above, while I draw near in Homeric fashion, and
try the mettle of your words. Here lies the point:—You want to have it proven
to you that the soul is imperishable and immortal, and the philosopher who is
confident in death appears to you to have but a vain and foolish confidence, if
he believes that he will fare better in the world below than one who has led
another sort of life, unless he can prove this; and you say that the
demonstration of the strength and divinity of the soul, and of her existence
prior to our becoming men, does not necessarily imply her immortality.
Admitting the soul to be longlived, and to have known and done much in a
former state, still she is not on that account immortal; and her entrance into
the human form may be a sort of disease which is the beginning of
dissolution, and may at last, after the toils of life are over, end in that which is
called death. And whether the soul enters into the body once only or many
times, does not, as you say, make any difference in the fears of individuals.
For any man, who is not devoid of sense, must fear, if he has no knowledge
and can give no account of the soul’s immortality. This, or something like
this, I suspect to be your notion, Cebes; and I designedly recur to it in order
that nothing may escape us, and that you may, if you wish, add or subtract
anything.
But, said Cebes, as far as I see at present, I have nothing to add or subtract:
I mean what you say that I mean.
Socrates paused awhile, and seemed to be absorbed in reflection. At length
he said: You are raising a tremendous question, Cebes, involving the whole
nature of generation and corruption, about which, if you like, I will give you
my own experience; and if anything which I say is likely to avail towards the
solution of your difficulty you may make use of it.
I should very much like, said Cebes, to hear what you have to say.
Then I will tell you, said Socrates. When I was young, Cebes, I had a
prodigious desire to know that department of philosophy which is called the
investigation of nature; to know the causes of things, and why a thing is and is
created or destroyed appeared to me to be a lofty profession; and I was always
agitating myself with the consideration of questions such as these:—Is the
growth of animals the result of some decay which the hot and cold principle
476
zurück zum
Buch The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Titel
- The Complete Plato
- Autor
- Plato
- Datum
- ~347 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 1612
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International