The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

II. Complex Involvements of Plato’s Immortality Postulates

The justification and the necessity for this extensive examination of Plato’s views are, first, that only as we are acquainted with Plato’s basic propositions will we be in a position to recognize the similarity of view and the heavy draft made upon Plato’s thought and terminology, first by Philo the Jew and then by Origen the Christian—with gravely deviating effects upon both faiths. And, second, the principle that faulty premises inevitably lead to unsound and false conclusions will become increasingly apparent as we proceed. ⁷ CFF1 564.2

1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE COSMOS

Plato explains the origin and nature of the cosmos as embracing the eternal “pattern,” the “materials,” and the “Demiurge,” who brings about in the “receptacle the nearest likeness of the pattern which it is possible to produce.” His Timaeus distinguishes between” ‘that which always is and has no becoming,’” and ” ‘that which is always becoming but never is.’” ⁸ CFF1 564.3

2. CONFLICTING RECITALS OF CREATION OF MAN

Professor Jowett, the Plato authority, brings out the fact that two widely conflicting tales of the creation of the universe and of man are projected by Plato (47c, 69a-90d). ⁹ In the Timaeus the “Maker” first creates the universe, then delegates the creation of man and animals to an inferior order of gods, for the creator created many gods, of whom he is the “artificer and father.” They receive from him the divine and immortal element—that is, the soul—and combine it in due proportion with the material and perishable. Thus man came into being. CFF1 564.4

But evil was born in him by reason of his composite nature. Everything good and evil, he holds, originates in the soul and spreads to the body. If man struggles against his passions and desires, he can make his pilgrimage unharmed. If he yields to temptations he (and not the Creator) is responsible for his evil state. ¹⁰ That is one concept of the inception of evil that was projected. CFF1 565.1

On the other hand, in the Statesman (269 ff.), the riddle of the universe receives a different and contradictory solution. There was a time, the tale goes—a “Golden Age” in the distant past—when, according to a celebrated legend, the deity (or creator) presided over the revolutions of the world, and man lived in innocence. But, in the process of time, the divine pilot of the universe withdrew his hand from the controls, and the universe began to reverse its rotation, and the destruction of all creatures resulted. CFF1 565.2

Then, according to the myth, a new race succeeded. At first all was well. But gradually the evil inherent in matter reasserted itself, and the world was soon ready for chaos again. Then the deity again took control, restoring order to creation and making the world immortal and self-creating in the cosmic change. Men and animals now reproduced their own species, after their kinds, and civilization developed (Laws 677 ff.). Here is Plato’s weird presentation in his own words, tied in with his transmigration premise: CFF1 565.3

“For when this whole order of things had come to its destined end, there must needs be universal change once more. For the earthborn race had by now become quite exhausted—each soul had run through its appointed number of births and had returned as seed to the earth as many times as had been ordained for it” (272 e). ¹¹ CFF1 565.4

Picture 2: Plato:
Under Plato, One of the Greatest Thinkers of All Antiquity, Immortal Soulism Reached Its Amazing Height.
Page 566

So a mystical haze is cast, by Plato, over the origin of evil and the growth of civilization among men. ¹² CFF1 566.1

3. EPITOME OF PLATO’S CONCEPT OF SOUL

Jowett, in the master index to his two-volume translation of The Dialogues of Plato, ably summarizes Plato’s teachings on the soul under several heads. This will provide an over-all view of Plato’s curious concepts—with some unavoidable repetition: CFF1 566.2

a. The soul allegedly exists prior to the body (Timaeus 34 e)—the body to be its servant, heeding its commands, while the soul ever seeks to escape from the body in which it is “encaged,” or “entombed,” thus to go to its home with God. CFF1 567.1

b. In the Laws there are “two souls”—a good and an evil (Laws 896). Such a Dualism seeks to account for the existence of evil. (In Timaeus, Plato “explains the wickedness of man by the hypothesis” of this second, or “mortal soul” as the “work of the inferior gods, and in which passions and desires have their seat.”) CFF1 567.2

c. “The division of the soul into three elements, reason, spirit, appetite (or desires) ... is made the means of classifying the different forms of government. Virtue is the harmony ... of these elements, when the dictates of reason are enforced by passion against the appetites, while vice is the anarchy or discord of the soul when passion and appetite join in rebellion against reason.” CFF1 567.3

d. The pre-existence of the soul is presented in Meno, Phaedo, and Phaedrus. In Meno (86) and Phaedo (73),” ‘remembrance of a previous existence’ is made a proof of immortality.” It is also alluded to in the myth of Er (Republic 621 a). (In Phaedo doubt is expressed by Simmias and Cebes that the soul is immortal. They fear that although the soul may outlive many bodies, it may be worn-out in the end, and at last perish and decay.) CFF1 567.4

e. The immortality of the soul is discussed chiefly in the Phaedo and The Republic, but it is mentioned in various other writings. Notice is taken of the claim that the soul resembles a harmony, like the music of the lyre. But this is denied because the soul is declared to be a cause, not an effect. It leads the body, whereas harmony follows the instrument. And it allows for discord. Life, which is the essence of the soul, excludes death. Death cannot be predicated of the soul. CFF1 567.5

f. The condition of the soul after death is described in several dialogues under the form of myths. All attest that the soul, upon release from the body, goes to give account of itself before the judgment seat—the righteous being sent to the Isles of the Blest; the wicked to suffer punishment, not hopeless or eternal, but proportionate to their offenses. In Phaedo 113 e and Gorgias 525, a few great sinners, however, are consigned to Hades. “When the penalty has been paid, the soul must choose a new life,” with responsibility of choice resting upon itself. If it has learned wisdom it is given a better lot. But if it persists in folly, and chooses an inferior life, it assumes the form of a lower animal. But there is even a limit to the blessedness of the righteous—when the appointed time comes, they too must make new choices (Phaedrus 249; Republic 619 c). CFF1 568.1

g. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was evidently adopted by Plato because it comported with the concept that he uniformly expresses of the remedial nature of punishment. This was evidently derived from Oriental sources but through Pythagorean channels. ¹³ CFF1 568.2

Such are Plato’s leading fancies concerning the soul. CFF1 568.3

4. TWOFOLD SOULS, FIXED NUMBER, AND TRANSMIGRATION

Here is one of Plato’s amazing views: Holding to the Pythagorean doctrine of the eternity of the soul, he believed that the total number of souls is fixed, that it is impossible that there should be more than are allotted, so that “whatever the number of souls, all must have existed from eternity.” This was basic. CFF1 568.4

Another strange teaching was that the soul is twofold—that which is immortal being derived from the good supreme god, and that which is mortal being created by the inferior gods, and maintained by constant accretions. These are, respectively, the rational and animal souls. The former is essential being, and is intrinsically good. It is immortal and cannot be destroyed by moral evil. In this concept of the self-subsistence of the soul lay the germ of Restorationism. CFF1 568.5

Plato also held to the successive migration of souls through various human and brute forms. And he held the doctrine of eternal punishment for some, involving deadly Dualism. Moreover, the divine power was limited, and the allotted period determined by an allotted number. But the power of the gods was unable to bring all things to perfection, hence the strange doctrine of eternal vicissitude. CFF1 569.1

5. WEIRD AGGREGATION OF PLATONIC CONCEPTS

Plato also had weird notions concerning the work of the Demiurge in the formation of souls. These included the number of souls equal to the stars, the place assigned to each soul in its own peculiar star, the relation of man’s soul to the world soul, the tripartite nature of the soul, its placement in the body, its spectral form, prowling around tombs and reverting to the bodies of beasts, birds, and insects, such as asses, wolves, hawks, kites, bees, wasps, ants. These were all an integral part of Plato’s reasoning, and the inseparable groundwork for his conclusions. CFF1 569.2

The Platonic theory of Innate Immortality therefore depends for its main support upon the postulate of the pre-existence of the soul, and is inextricably bound up with the assumption of metempsychosis. ¹⁴ CFF1 569.3

6. MYTHICAL TALE OF THE JUDGMENT INVOKED

So Sure is Plato of his belief in immortality that he employs his arguments chiefly to justify his beliefs. And there is no avoiding recognition of the fact that he supports his views as concerns the judgment by recourse to four myths, ¹⁵ in his endeavor to bridge the chasm between the seen and the unseen world. And these myths have, in turn, had a very marked influence upon the later beliefs of others. CFF1 569.4

For example: Plato’s Republic closes with the legend of Er, the son of Armenius, who allegedly saw in trance the judgment of the dead and the hidden glories of the unseen world, and who returned without drinking of the “River of Forgetfulness.” ¹⁶ Thus he was able to recall what he saw, which experience was not vouchsafed to the others. CFF1 569.5

In noting this, we should ever remember that Plato maintains the postulate of the transmigration of souls and the long journey of souls (after judgment) for their rebirth as birds or animals. The tale is briefly this: Er died in battle. When the corpses were gathered ten days later, Er’s body, unlike the rest, was not decayed. Two days later, while lying on the funeral pyre, Er recovered and recounted what he had seen in the other world. CFF1 570.1

According to the tale, when his soul left his body it journeyed with many others and came to a mysterious place where there were two openings into the earth, side by side, and two corresponding openings into the sky above. Between these openings sat judges. And according to the respective verdicts they ordered the souls of the righteous to go to the right, and ascend into the sky, and the souls of the wicked to go to the left, and downward into the earth. Er was told to report to mankind about this other world. CFF1 570.2

He declared that he saw souls come up for judgment and depart either by an opening into the sky or by one into the earth. But through the other two openings (into the sky and earth) Er saw souls arriving—all the stained from within the earth, and the stainless back from the sky. Those from the sky arrived as from a long journey, and departed to a meadow, where they greeted many friends, telling of indescribable beauty and pleasure in the sky. The Others, with tears, told of their thousand-year journey and sufferings under the earth. For all their misdeeds they paid a tenfold penalty. The grossly wicked, the incurable sinners, had fearful punishment, and were cast into the terrors of Hell. Such were the penalties and punishments and the contrasting blessings portrayed. CFF1 570.3

But that was not all. After a seven-day respite the groups in the meadow were obliged to proceed on their journey, choosing according to past incarnations, to become as birds, or beasts, or women—each drinking from the waters of forgetfulness, which blot out memory of the previous life. Then Er awoke. As a sequel, Socrates admonished that “the soul is immortal and capable of enduring all extremes of good and evil.” So live, he urges, that “both here and in that journey of a thousand years, whereof I have told you, we shall fare well.” Such a crass myth was part and parcel of Plato’s portrayal of the destiny of the soul. CFF1 571.1

7. DUALISM INVOLVED IN “TWO” ETERNAL SOULS

The Laws is primarily political, but in Book x stress is laid on religious beliefs. This section embodies Plato’s exposition of natural theology—the cosmological argument based on the belief that all motion requires a “good soul” as its source. The existence of a second maleficent world-soul, identified with “necessity,” is also defended (x. 896). ¹⁷ God is the good supreme soul, along with a second maleficent world-soul—which, of course, is unconcealed Dualism. CFF1 571.2

The Laws repeats and amplifies what is said elsewhere—that all that has life has soul (726). ¹⁸ But in Book x there is this new emphasis—that the soul (the self-motion) is “prior to the body,” and is the cause of all motion (896). ¹⁹ Moreover, soul is the cause of all things good and bad, just and unjust. It resides in everything that has movement—including the heavens. It “directs” all things through “will.” The soul “directs all things in heaven, and earth, and the sea and her movements” (897). This is elaborated on. Evil is included, as well as good. Furthermore, there are declared to be at least “two souls”—“one the author of good, and the other of evil” (896). ²⁰ Such is Plato’s Dualism. CFF1 571.3

This Dualism consequently involves two warring souls in Heaven. The good soul, or souls, gifted with wisdom, are responsible for the motions of the sun, moon, and stars, and are rightly called gods (899). The bad souls are the souls of ignorant men. Ignorance (absence of knowledge) causes some souls to misdirect their powers. This is to be cured by teaching and education. But the soul is the highest and noblest part of man. And the world is governed by the better of the two souls (897, 898) ²¹ The implications, however, are far reaching. Such is another of the strange vagaries soberly put forth by Plato as part of his immortal-soul thesis. CFF1 571.4