Here's the question again: what is it that is reincarnated? — Banno
And they claim (at the link) that they can prove all of this with the scientific method. — baker
Nevertheless, the prevailing view of the Phaedo is that Socrates accepts, and argues in favour of, the immortality of the soul, even if he admits he doesn't necessarily understand the soul's destiny. — Wayfarer
Nevertheless, the prevailing view of the Phaedo is that Socrates accepts, and argues in favour of, the immortality of the soul, even if he admits he doesn't necessarily understand the soul's destiny. — Wayfarer
Nevertheless, the prevailing view of the Phaedo is that Socrates accepts, and argues in favour of, the immortality of the soul, even if he admits he doesn't necessarily understand the soul's destiny. — Wayfarer
what the soul ‘remembers’ are ideas that were understood before birth. And those are principles that are grasped by reason. I don’t think such ideas are objectively real. Whereas for us, what is objectively real comprises our cognitive horizon. — Wayfarer
Suppose that someone were to suggest that digestion could become disembodied. That the digestion from one body could move to another.
Would you think this idea had conceptual issues?
Those are much the same as the conceptual issues I see in reincarnation. — Banno
One of the suggestions in the Phaedo is that what is immaterial can be understood in terms of the ideas. Likewise, what the soul ‘remembers’ are ideas that were understood before birth. And those are principles that are grasped by reason — Wayfarer
It is apparent that only a very few people claim to have memories of previous lives. So if we take them at their word, reincarnation is a very rare thing indeed. — Banno
If your innate knowledge comes from a previous life, then either the chain of people is infinite, or there was an 'Adam' who learned without previous lives. — frank
Good point. But if there was this Adam then the myth of anamnesis cannot be taken too seriously, because it would not then rely on recollection from a previous life. — Fooloso4
Anamnesis is that connection to the eternal. — frank
This would mean an eternal regress to past lives, there could be no life that was not a recollection from a previous life, so no life in which knowledge of the Forms first gained. — Fooloso4
Once again, you're telling me what I told you. — frank
If your innate knowledge comes from a previous life, then either the chain of people is infinite, or there was an 'Adam' who learned without previous lives. — frank
"Eternal" sometimes means atemporal. Are you familiar with that idea? — frank
Not at all. Your second statement doesn't follow from the first. If only a few people claim to have memories of previous lives this may simply mean that only a few have the capacity to remember those lives not that those lives didn't happen. — Apollodorus
Now it may be clear to you but based on what you said it may not be clear to others that an infinite regress makes knowledge impossible. — Fooloso4
There can be no Adam who gained knowledge without previous lives if knowledge is recollection from previous lives. This too makes knowledge impossible. — Fooloso4
How can there be atemporal recollection of what is learned in a previous life? How can there be a previous life that is not in time? What does previous mean atemporally? — Fooloso4
I don't think the infinite regress would make knowledge impossible. — frank
It's that Plato's argument implodes, not that knowledge is impossuble. — frank
The problem is that if we start with the premise that knowledge is recollection then there would never be a time when knowledge was learned. — Fooloso4
But it cannot be recollected if it had not at some time first
been learned. — Fooloso4
The failure of the argument indicates that knowledge is not possible if knowledge is recollection — Fooloso4
With regard to reincarnation it means that if there is reincarnation the myth of recollection does not support it since it cannot even support its own claims. — Fooloso4
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