The Stoics And Socrates Essay, Research Paper

The Stoics and Socrates

The question of the reality of the soul and its distinction from the body is

among the most important problems of philosophy, for with it is bound up the

doctrine of a future life. The soul may be defined as the ultimate internal

principle by which we think, feel, and will, and by which our bodies are

animated. The term “mind” usually denotes this principle as the subject of our

conscious states, while “soul” denotes the source of our vegetative activities

as well. If there is life after death, the agent of our vital activities must

be capable of an existence separate from the body. The belief in an active

principle in some sense distinct from the body is inference from the observed

facts of life. The lowest savages arrive at the concept of the soul almost

without reflection, certainly without any severe mental effort. The mysteries

of birth and death, the lapse of conscious life during sleep, even the most

common operations of imagination and memory, which abstract a man from his

bodily presence even while awake; all such facts suggest the existence of

something besides the visible organism. An existence not entirely defined by the

material and to a large extent independent of it, leading a life of its own. In

the psychology of the savage, the soul is often represented as actually

migrating to and fro during dreams and trances, and after death haunting the

neighborhood of its body. Nearly always it is figured as something extremely

volatile, a perfume or a breath.

In Greece, the heartland of our ancient philosophers, the first essays of

philosophy took a positive and somewhat materialistic direction, inherited from

the pre-philosophic age, from Homer and the early Greek religion. In Homer,

while the distinction of soul and body is recognized, the soul is hardly

conceived as possessing a substantial existence of its own. Severed from the

body, it is a mere shadow, incapable of energetic life. Other philosophers

described the soul’s nature in terms of substance. Anaximander gives it an

aeriform constitution, Heraclitus describes it as a fire. The fundamental

thought is the same. The soul is the nourishing agent which imparts heat, life,

sense, and intelligence to all things in their several degrees and kinds. The

Pythagoreans taught that the soul is a harmony, its essence consisting in those

perfect mathematical ratios which are the law of the universe and the music of

the heavenly spheres. All these early theories were cosmological rather than

psychological in character. Theology, physics, and mental science were not as

yet distinguished.

In the “Timaeus” (p. 30), one of Plato’s writings, we find an account derived

from Pythagorean sources of the origin of the soul. First the world-soul is

created according to the laws of mathematical symmetry and musical harmony. It

is composed of two elements, one an element of “sameness”, corresponding to the

universal and intelligible order of truth, and the other an element of

distinction or “otherness”, corresponding to the world of sensible and

particular existences. The individual human soul is constructed on the same

plan.

The Stoics taught that all existence is material, and described the soul as “a

breath pervading the body”. They also called it Divine, a particle of God; it

was composed of the most refined and ethereal matter. They denied absolute

immortality; relative immortality, ending with the universal conflagration and

destruction of all things, some of them admitted in the case of the wise man.

Yet many others, such as Panaetius and Posidonius, denied even this, arguing

that, as “the soul began with the body, so it must end with it”.

With Socrates came a revolution in all manners of thought. As, perhaps, the

most influential of philosophers, and also one of the best known, it is truly

unfortunate he left the future so little of his theories. Only through the

writings of his students have we any idea of his philosophy. In the writing of

Plato much thought is given to the concept of the human soul. Socrates presents

the soul having three major ideas associated with it. The human soul is

immortal, immaterial, and moral. The question of immortality was a principal

subject of Plato’s speculations. In the “Phaedo” the chief argument for the

immortality of the soul is based on the nature of intellectual knowledge

interpreted on the theory of reminiscence of past lives; this implies the pre-

existence of the soul, and logically derives its eternal pre-existence. The

human soul is eternal, existing with neither beginning nor end.

With Socrates, the individual aspects of the soul became dominant. It’s

individuality and its strict separation with the body. In dominant thought

prior to the introduction of Socratic ideas, the human soul was naught but a

small part of a great world-soul; a soul that included the souls of every

creature and every object upon the earth and in the universe. In this scenario

the actions of a human were of no consequence directly to the soul. There could

be no concept of morality having any impact on personal life beyond the

immediate. To Socrates the soul is the center of all human morality, the

embodiment of “the good” in the human consciousness. Rather than just

proceeding to rejoin the world-soul the individual soul must pay reparation for

life on earth. A human that lives immorally, with disregard to the good will

impact the future of his soul. In Greek philosophy the souls that are damned

live for eternity in a place of torture and torment. The individual soul gives

humans motive for leadinglives that are good and just. In Socrates own words

“It is better to suffer injustice than to serve injustice.” The care of the

soul becomes dominant over the body. Care for the immortal aspects of the human

and rewarding life after death will follow.

Socrates ties an abstract set of values to the existence of the soul. To lead a

life that is good and just is to seek throughout ones life the ultimate

understanding; to fully recognize the good in the universe and to understand its

place. Without the realization of this good we are unable to fully comprehend

any form of existence. I originally found fault with this assessment of life

and the soul as a result of the seemingly complex and abstract values that a

soul must live by. Upon further reflection the ultimate purpose of the soul is

to seek understanding. Though abstract in nature, this goal is one that can be

applied to every individual regardless of culture, creed or religion. Though I

first considered this one of the week points in the Socratic theory in truth its

universality, is one of its strengths.

Socrates’ introduction of the individual soul includes an aspect of motive to

the nature of existence. With this new found individuality a soul must worry

about its existence, if it acted properly it would ascend to the Greek concept

of eternal bliss. In my own unworthy opinion, to act with personal benefit in

mind is to act selfishly and therefore immorally. I concede to Socrates that a

truly selfless act is impossible, for as humans we always have an ulterior

motive behind the closed door of our direct consciousness. Why should it be

different for the eternal existence of our soul? Though we may always have

goals to work towards, basing ones life on the condition of afterlife is self

defeating. Life must be lived from day to day with actions that further ones

own immediate goals, whether they are to bring joy to others or to live quietly

in peace. To have the thought of eternal salvation looming overhead is to live

life with a bit in your mouth. Actions in accord with the good will be

committed for that reason; because they are good and just, not in hope of a

better afterlife.

Socratic thought has played such a dominant role in our thinking that it is all

but useless to imagine a world without the benefit of his wisdom and

understanding. his influence can be felt throughout all aspects of thought, for

he covered them on such a universal level that they extend even to our own time.

His concept of the soul revolutionized Western concepts and gave the necessary

basis for his students to carry on. In the convoluted mess of differing ideas

on the soul, Socrates’ is the most universal, the most encompassing and the most

realistic.