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would say. Even though he got a bum wrap he would not demoralize
his countrymen by disobeying the law. It’s interesting that
Henry Thoreau was on the opposite fence. In his civil
disobedience article which we read the state is evil and
whenever he gets an order from it, he decides and the exception
is when he goes along with it. Socrates on the other hand
obeys the law and it’s only in the exception that he goes
his own way.

The most moving of the tour dialogues we read is Phaedo.
Phaedo, like Crito and Euthyphro is a man’s name. He was an
ex-POW. He was one of those that was with Socrates at the
time of his death. It was in this dialogue, written by Plato
some 12 years after Socrates’ death, that we get Plato’s
idea of metaphysics, the forms, equality, beauty, goodness,
justice, the holy. They are eternal, not mutable. To Plato,
the body is sluggishness, inertia, in error; to Christ, body
is the temple of the holy spirit, neither good nor evil. To
Plato the soul is immortal by nature; to Christ the soul is
immortal by the grace of God. To Plato the soul is permanent
and seeks to behold the forms. It’s an exaggerated dualism.
Soul strives to leave body. At that point he gives various
proofs of immortality. The argument from opposites: life
and death are opposites he says, one generates from the other.
A second proof, he asks the question, “What would a soul do
after death, how could it break down? The soul like the forms

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