Plato and dualism

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  • plato and life after death:
    • The physical world and the world of forms are completely separate and so are the body and the soul. This is a dualist approach.
      • The soul has the ability to understand the forms through reason and can develop knowledge through reason, however, the body can only learn through sensory experience.
        • to plato knowledge though sense experience is inferior to knowledge learned through reason.
          • this is because senses can often be mistaken, because the body is in a state of constant change, and so is the physical world.
          • the soul however is unchanging, it exists before birth and after death.
    • plato believed that a person's inner mental life is central to who they are: consisting of emotions, goals and ambitions.
      • he gave the name psyche to this inner life. this is the real part of a person.
    • The soul is made up of three elements:
      • emotion
        • allows us to love and inspires us but if left unchecked it can become reckless and conceited.
      • reason
        • reason should always take lead: he used the analogy of the charioteer.
      • appetite
        • allows us to respond to the physical demands of our body but if left unchecked it can lead to lives of hedonism and greed.
      • Reason is the most superior, followed by emotion and then followed by appetite.
        • reason gives us knowledge of the forms and helps us to keep appetite and emotion in check.
      • these three elements give balance to the individual.
    • the soul
      • the should exists before birth and after death,
      • the soul is like a prisoner, the analogy of the cave. when the soul is released back to the world of  the forms and it can reach its best state because it is undisrupted by the needs for the body.

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