Ben Eastman’s Reviews > Phaedo > Status Update
Ben Eastman
is 50% done
What always throws me with Plato is how I often disagree with Socrates' premise, but agree with his conclusion.
I disagree that the soul necessarily exists before birth. However, I do agree with the conclusion he draws from it, namely that souls, once created, are immortal.
— Mar 06, 2026 05:56PM
I disagree that the soul necessarily exists before birth. However, I do agree with the conclusion he draws from it, namely that souls, once created, are immortal.
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Ben Eastman
is 51% done
I liked the analogies that Simmias and Cebes gave as counterarguments to Socrates.
Simmias gives the example that a body is to a harp as the soul is to a harmony. Just as if you destroy the harp strings, the melody would end, so too would the soul die when the body dies.
Cebes compares the soul to a cloak, suggesting that the soul is not immortal, but merely outlasts us and dies after it belongs to several people.
— Mar 06, 2026 06:12PM
Simmias gives the example that a body is to a harp as the soul is to a harmony. Just as if you destroy the harp strings, the melody would end, so too would the soul die when the body dies.
Cebes compares the soul to a cloak, suggesting that the soul is not immortal, but merely outlasts us and dies after it belongs to several people.
Ben Eastman
is finished
"Only the body and its desires cause war, civil discord and battles, for all wars are due to the desire to acquire wealth, and it is the body and the care of it, to which we are enslaved, which compel us to acquire wealth, and all this makes us too busy to practice philosophy."
— Mar 03, 2026 04:37AM
