Explain Platos concept of the soul and Its relationship to the body.

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Explain Plato’s concept of the soul and It’s relationship to the body. (33)

Plato’s concept of the body and soul can be linked to his theory of the cave in many ways. He thought of existence in terms of two levels. The body is like everything else physical; it is in a constant state of change and is never the same from one moment to the next. However the soul in contrast is immortal and unchanging and therefore can both know and be known.

Plato believes that the body is the physical component of each person, the part that other people can see and hear, and present an appearance. The body will only receive our sense experiences and our minds are able to achieve our opinion.

Plato also believed that the mind and body are often in opposition. The mind wants to understand things but the body is only interested in sense pleasures. The body is also blind and is not the real person where as the soul is the directing force of the body which tries to guide us.

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The body and mind are like the prisoners in the cave who do not think about the outside world and do not want to be released. All the prisoners value is the shadows and the noises and do not experience the true reality.

The soul however is immortal. It exists before during and after it is trapped in the human body, and therefore our soul has experienced the perfect and guiding our body towards the perfect. This is show when the prisoner leaves the cave and opens his eyes to the outside world.

So therefore the ...

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