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Full Idea
From its composer the soul possesses all beautiful things, but from its former condition, everything that proves to be harsh and unjust in heaven.
Gist of Idea
The soul gets its goodness from god, and its evil from previous existence.
Source
Plato (The Statesman [c.356 BCE], 273b)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Statesman', ed/tr. Bernadete,Seth [University of Chicago 1986], p.23
A Reaction
A neat move to explain the origins of evil (or rather, to shift the problem of evil to a long long way from here). This view presumably traces back to the views of Empedocles on good and evil. Can the soul acquire evil in its current existence?
| 5985 | Seeking and learning are just recollection [Plato] |
| 5986 | The slave boy learns geometry from questioning, not teaching, so it is recollection [Plato] |
| 357 | People are obviously recollecting when they react to a geometrical diagram [Plato] |
| 359 | If we feel the inadequacy of a resemblance, we must recollect the original [Plato] |
| 5961 | The soul gets its goodness from god, and its evil from previous existence. [Plato] |
| 1823 | We can't seek for things if we have no idea of them [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius] |