more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Is one soul, even minutely, more or less of a soul than another? Not in the least.
Clarification
'Soul' is the Greek word 'psuché', which covers mind and consciousness and life
Gist of Idea
One soul can't be more or less of a soul than another
Source
Plato (Phaedo [c.382 BCE], 093b)
Book Ref
Plato: 'The Last Days of Socrates', ed/tr. Tredennick,Hugh [Penguin 1969], p.149
A Reaction
This idea is attractive because unconsciousness and death seem to be abrupt procedures, and so appear to be all-or-nothing, but I would personally view extreme Alzheimer's as an erasing of the soul, though a minimum level of it seems all-or-nothing.
| 364 | One soul can't be more or less of a soul than another [Plato] |
| 571 | Is Socrates the same person when standing and when seated? [Aristotle] |
| 5514 | Psychologists are interested in identity as a type of person, but philosophers study numerical identity [Parfit] |
| 7714 | Personal identity is a problem across time (diachronic) and at an instant (synchronic) [Lowe] |