Immortality of the soul- many philosophers, laureates and scientists have delved upon the subject in both the earlier times and the present time. However, the logic of the immortality of the soul, whether it is true or not that is the soul being mortal, has not been justified till yet. Plato and Socrates have justified what they believe, Kant also rationalizes the existence of God and the immortality of soul, however, and the debate is still on as to whether the soul is mortal or immortal. In this paper, I would develop the thesis on the premise that the soul is mortal and relatively would give explanations as has been given by Plato, Socrates, David Hume and Immanuel Kant as well as Christian and Islamic religious views. Before I embark on explaining what different scholars have said about the existence of God and the Immortality of soul, let us first discuss the religious views on the immortality of soul.
In both Christianity and Islam there is a consensus in the resurrection after death on the doom's day. Starting from this belief, Islam accepts that the soul is immortal and that the body is mortal and after death the soul leaves the body and resides in a place called "Alam-e-Arwah" or the world of souls. This belief is rooted in the fact that the soul is created by the God and that after death and on the day of Judgment the souls of everyone would be filled in back in to the respective bodies and after the judgment, people would either be pushed to the Hell or pulled within the Heaven. This belief is sufficient enough to ascertain that yes there is the existence of soul and yes the soul does not die with the body, rather they are saved for the judgment day when all the people would be resurrected from the dead to face their fate. This is the concept of the immortality of soul in Islam, where as the Christian belief is a little different as it is based on the surmise that man is created for God to live till eternity, and till eternity the soul lives and then the people are resurrected on the day of judgment. However, a link is missing in the explanation given by the Christian faith as to how the soul lives and what is the purpose of the soul to live till eternity and what is the purpose of its being immortal? This is a question that makes the belief of the Christians about the immortality of the soul a bit doubtful.
Now I come to the concept given by Emanuel Kant about the existence of God and the immortality of soul. According to Kant the practicality of the nature resides in the goodness and this goodness is only possible if it is assumed that soul is immortal. This reason is very confusing. However, if we go by the law of the nature and the moral law, we can get some idea as to what Kant is asserting over here. Immortality of the soul or the mortality of the soul is directly related to, according to Kant, the moral law and that law is directly related to the will of the nature and also, in effect, related to the underlying aim and nature of the religion. Kant in the Critique of Practical Reason states this case as follows:
The principle of the moral destination of our nature -- that only by endless progress can we come into full harmony with the moral law -- is of the greatest use, not only for fortifying the speculative reason, but also with respect to religion. In default of this, either the moral law is degraded from its holiness, being represented as indulging our convenience, or else men strain after an unattainable aim, hoping to gain absolute holiness of will, thus losing themselves in fanatical theosophic dreams utterly contradicting self-knowledge. For a rational, but finite, being the only possibility is an endless progression from the lower to the higher degrees of perfection. The Infinite Being, to whom the time condition is nothing, sees in this endless succession the perfect harmony with the moral law" (http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Outline_of_Great_Books_Volume_I/immortalit_bii.html).
In relation to the existence of God, Kant gives that for the "pure practical reason must also postulate the existence of God as the necessary condition of the attainment of the summum bonum. As the perfect good can only be promoted by accordance of the will with the moral law, so...
Immortality of the Soul in the Phaedo Such dialogues as the Republic, the Phaedrus, and the Symposium make clear that Socrates has certainly reflected on the demonstrability of the immortality of the soul prior to his death day. And it is entirely possible that Socrates believes that one last attempt at a proof of immortality may yet result in an ironclad demonstration of this doctrine. But it is at least equally
In other words, like Plato, the body is inferior and its substance is irrelevant for true and certain knowledge. The intellect with its faculties (judgment, imagination, memory, free will, etc.) is most important. The sixth meditation is the crucial one. He shows the body as "an extended, non-thinking thing" (VII: 78). This is accepted as being close to who he is, but not as close as the mind part. "And
All is forgiven. Eventually, both of them disappear into one of the trees that the old man's ancestors have looked after, for hundreds of years. Is the story emotionally positive or negative in tone? On one hand, the old man was a failure in life, and drove a woman to suicide. Yet in death, everything seems to be forgiven, and he returns to her and the spiritual resting place of
The Greeks believe that the soul is an essential part of the body since it gives it life. The soul thinks, feels, and chooses[footnoteRef:1]. The interaction between the body and soul influences one another giving rise to the concept of dualism. They also view the soul as a simple form without any parts. Plato postulated that the soul is separated from the body and while the body degenerates, the soul
Death and Immortality in Dickinson's Poetry Death and Immortality in Emily Dickinson's Poems Emily Dickinson was an American poet whose unique lifestyle and writing have helped to establish her as an important literary figure. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830 and died in the same town she lived her entire life in 1886. During her lifetime, despite her many attempts and multitudinous volumes of poetry written, only seven poems are
This view corresponds roughly with Freud's analysis of the soul, which consists of the unconscious id, dark and ugly, needing to be molded by the ego, which balances needs and maintains order, both sitting under the super-ego, which represents the wisdom of social convention and knowledge. Plato believes that in constructing the soul in this way he is able to define morality as those actions which tend to bring
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now