“PHAIDON”: STRUCTURE AND MEANING OF THE PROOFS OF IMMORTALITY OF SOUL Cover Image

"FAIDONAS": SIELOS NEMIRTINGUMO ĮRODYMŲ STRUKTŪRA IR PRASMĖ
“PHAIDON”: STRUCTURE AND MEANING OF THE PROOFS OF IMMORTALITY OF SOUL

Author(s): Skirmantas Jankauskas
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Vilniaus Universiteto Leidykla
Keywords: knowledge; anamnesis; everyday thinking; ethical thinking; sense

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the proofs of immortality of soul in Plato’s ‘Phaidon’. It is demonstrated here that in the dialogue, Plato attempts to reconstruct theoretical premises of the Socratic imperative ‘first and chiefly care about the greatest improvement of the soul’. The concern with the quality of soul has no warrants of reward in everyday life, therefore, it is necessary to search for such warrants beyond this life, which implies the prerequisite of the immortality of soul. Four proofs of the immortality of soul are distinguished in the dialogue: dialectical, gnoseological, ontological ant axiological. The logical structure and the premises of every proof are reconstructed. The premises are thematized in the context of Greek thinking, and in this way the direct and indirect intentions of every proof are revealed. The popular Antique concept of the soul as a harmony of the parts of body is analyzed as well. It is pointed out that Plato deals with the concept not because of his own conceptual preoccupations but just paying a debt to the popularity of this concept in the Antique world. However, the focus of the paper centers upon the Platonic concept of knowledge. The author maintains that the essential features of the concept of knowledge as anamnesis are predetermined by the sincretic character of the Greek thinking that in its turn anonimizes the subject of knowledge. The paper begins and ends with ethical accents. It is stated here that ‘Phaidon’ could be treated as the first attempt to produce a theoretical foundation of ethical behavior and that therein the postulates of practical reason, as formulated much more later by I. Kant, are already distinguished.

  • Issue Year: 2005
  • Issue No: 68
  • Page Range: 63-81
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Lithuanian