The ancient Greek philosophers...remained more faithful to the Idea of the philosopher than their modern counterparts have done. “When will you finally begin to live virtuously?” said Plato to an old man who told him he was attending classes on virtue. The point is not always to speculate, but ultimately to think about applying our knowledge. Today, however, he who lives in conformity with what he teaches is taken for a dreamer. Kant
Friday, January 21, 2011
Opposites
In the early hours of this Friday morning I finished up that which I had not yet completed of the Phaedo. And as I had done the morning before after finishing Twelfth Knight for my late Shakespeare class, I took out all of my inquiries and the ecstasy of reading great works on my girlfriend. Although yesterday involved my attempts at recreating the brilliant prose of the great Bill Shakespeare, this morning I started to question her on beliefs with regard to the soul, body and afterlife. I explained to her the idea of opposites, and as Simmias and Cebes agreed with Socrates after explanation, she too started following me. But one thing she would not grasp, probably due to dogmatic upbringing in Evangelical fashion, was the idea that death and life are results of each other. She claimed to not believe in reincarnation, so I decided to favor her beliefs in trying to describe that the life she lives is a result of others passing, and how God decides to bring people into the world is evidence that this life results from death. Does this make sense to anyone else? I'm sure I could have worded it differently, but since God is life and death, according to some beliefs, and if he fashioned life for each person and also death, then the theory of opposites holds. It may not be direct reincarnation of a particular soul, but if all souls are part of, or the creation of, an omnipotent being, then there is some connection from death to life. Or maybe I'm making no sense?
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