The Soul

 Maybe its just me, but it seems like possibly, deep down, Socrates was a wee bit scared of passing on and therefore HAD to convince his friends that the soul is eternal and will go elsewhere after death and theoretically to greater beauty and truth. Maybe thats just me being cynical because his ability to reason in very long complicated dialogue tested my brain a little too much and i want to doubt him...so i think i'm a little biased.

Ok, on to more meaningful things. On page 28 Socrates tells his friend Cebes to 'search  for such a charmer among them all...you must also search among yourselves for you might not easily find people who could do this better than yourselves' pg 28 (near the # 78). This stuck out because Socrates is always teaching, probing, asking questions, driving the dialogue and hunting down a truth, but here he is giving his friends some advice. He is telling them to find a friend, a mentor, a guide, pretty much find another Socrates. I have mixed feelings about this, maybe he is just looking out for his companions, or maybe (this could be too cynical) he doubts their ability to exist/think/reason without a mentor/guide. I doubt that socrates really thought that, but he seems so coldly rational that it could be possible.

I, as insane as it is, disagree with Socrates on a point. This could be very unwise of me, but i'm willing to attempt it. On page 34 socrates states: every pleasure and every pain provides, as it were, another nail to rivet the soul to the body and to weld them together. It makes the soul corporeal, so that it believes that truth is what the body says it is.

I do believe that pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, etc... have effects on our soul, but that they more thoroughly bind our soul to our body? no. I think they help to shape our soul, the pleasure and joy providing a release of pressure from the soul and the pain sorrow and suffering applying pressure. This letting off and applying of some metaphysical 'pressure' is what shapes us our characters and our beliefs.

The end of the story absolutely boggled my mind. The ambiguity was interesting and at the same time obnoxious. "it is through Beauty that beautiful things are made beautiful" 51. Yes, i understand, there is a higher purer beauty that can be seen through beautiful things on this earth, but still. Sorry to harp on you Socrates but that statement was a bit redundant. The one that really got me was "an opposite will never be opposite to itself" 54. Now i understand that in proving a maxim or theory simple premises must be made...well i guess that justifies this one, so i have no reason to be annoyed with Socrates...

The end scene is pretty interesting. He calmly just dies. I admire his ability to handle the situation so calmly. Bravo Socrates.

I struggled to think of a fitting song for this one...i couldn't find one. I thought i could make something fit, but i couldn't my apologies. i'll get one next time.