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Chapter 7 - Eschatology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2018

Chad Jorgenson
Affiliation:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen
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Summary

The eschatological myths are our only source for Plato’s views on the condition of the soul outside of the body. Rather than interpret them as literal accounts of the afterlife, this chapter argues that they result from the appropriation of traditional religious themes in an attempt to portray symbolically the condition of the disembodied soul, which cannot be the object of discursive knowledge. Each myth takes up the themes of the dialogue in which it is found, creating a myth that reflects in the form of images, the philosophical theories presented in the body of the dialogue, acting as a symbolic mirror for the condition of the soul as portrayed in the dialogue. The last dialogues see an eclipse of eschatological imagery, due in part to their highly technical nature, in part to Plato’s desire to merge the two sources of his eschatology: the cosmological account of reincarnation, which provides the “scientific” foundations for the immortality of the soul, and the accounts of post-mortem punishments, which serve an ethical-political function. Thus, in the Timaeus we find a wholly naturalized eschatology, deprived of supernatural trappings, in which the condition of the soul is perfectly mirrored in the condition of the body-soul complex as a whole.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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  • Eschatology
  • Chad Jorgenson, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen
  • Book: The Embodied Soul in Plato's Later Thought
  • Online publication: 23 March 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316795651.009
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  • Eschatology
  • Chad Jorgenson, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen
  • Book: The Embodied Soul in Plato's Later Thought
  • Online publication: 23 March 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316795651.009
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Eschatology
  • Chad Jorgenson, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen
  • Book: The Embodied Soul in Plato's Later Thought
  • Online publication: 23 March 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316795651.009
Available formats
×