| but without direction from the Holy Spirit, they were as blind men trying to describe an elephant strictly from their other senses. They believed in reincarnation as we will see as we continue: "But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the time of her departure, and is a companion and servant of the body always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts - the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible, and can only be attained by philosophy - do you suppose such a soul will depart pure and unalloyed? Impossible, he replied. She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual association and constant care of the body have wrought into her nature. That is very likely. Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the souls, not of the good, but of the evil, which are compelled to wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former evil way of life, and they continue to wander until, through the craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their former lives.". We have seen enough I think of Phaedo to see the beginning of shift from pure Socrates to a Platonic influence, in that, the discussions are beginning to become involved with science as well as with how a man should act to make the most of life. We see an unfocused statement of the need to die to self for a peaceful existance. We see a shift from theology to science, as a source for arguments, begin with Plato and finalize in Aristotle, who could almost be labled atheist. Plato in Republic lays out his master plan for the ideal society. One of 103 _____________________________________________________________________________ communes, limited in size, Spartan in life style, with no aristocracy other than perhaps the philosophers. At one point, in Republic, he came as close as he ever did to recognizing the true and living God. In Republic:Book VIII, Plato has Socrates discussing the known forms of government, which he labels as timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny, which he considers as inferior. The discussion of governments, which reflect the inner nature of the men within the government, was deemed neccessary for a true understanding of the men themselves. In Republic:Book VII, probably written between 380 and 370 B. C. we see the famous parable of the cave, which contrasts the material world experiences with the spiritual world experiences: "And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened. Behold! human beings living in an underground den; which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their arms and legs chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. I see. And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent. You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? 104 ______________________________________________________________________________ |
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