Phaedo

3. How does Socrates use the argument from opposites to prove the immortality of the soul?
Socrates uses his theory of opposites to prove the immortality of the soul by taking not only humans, but also animals and our surroundings into account. For example, the opposite of sleep is awake like good contradicts with evil. Moreover, Socrates says in all opposites there is the need for the other. Meaning, without something having an opposite, it is not real. For one to become greater, it must have started less, and vice versa. Being better is brought from the state of acting worse as more just is from the more unjust. Also, being one thing also means not being another. The two universal opposites go from one opposite to the other then back again. Being alive means not being dead. When dead, one cannot be alive. And as sleeping is generated out of waking and waking is generated out of sleeping, being asleep means not being awake. These examples prove how they equally involve a passage into and out of one another. Without the other, none would exist. In obvious belief, death can only be brought by life. However, Socrates goes more in depth by saying that and it vice versa, life is brought by death. Meaning, our souls are immoral because they forever live on after the body dies.

4. Explain the theory of recollection and show how Socrates thinks it proves the preexistence of the soul?
The theory of recollection is the idea that everything we learn has already been tought to us in our previous life, yet we forgot it. For example, we are born with the understanding of equality. Looking at two objects of different size we differenciate whether it is length or width that make the object not equal to its partner. We are able to realize this without the previous experience of seeing two things that actually are perfectly equal, because no such things exist. Therefore, not learning this Form of Equality only proves that we use recollection of immortal knowledge known before birth. And, if this holds true for equality, then it will hold true for all the other Forms as well. It seems that we lose our knowledge of the Forms at births, and through the process of learning that we come to recollect the knowledge again.
This theory is an implication of how our souls have preexisted. Also using the theory of opposites, Socrates claims the soul has existed before birth with no new knowledge and that it must have been born generated from death.

Karl Marx
5. What does Marx mean by the fetish character of a commodity? Can you see any connection between this concept and the way we view our deaths. (see the previous article by Mitford)
By saying there is a fetish character of a commodity, Marx is stating that capitalism has turned people into cravers of unneeded things, giving these unneeded things value. We have become fixated on objects that really have no meaning. Being too caught up in our desire, we forget the actual significance of the fetished item and lose interest in where it is from. For example, to possess a “foot fetish” means to constantly think about feet and dream of them being around you at all times. This craving is pointless and does absolutely nothing for the health of a soul, yet why do some still find themselves obsessing over feet? Those who do, rarely can answer that question simply because they will not ever ask themselves it. However, when we give feet value through the process of exchanging, feet become more significant than actually made. Feet are then becoming a commodity with a different meaning than originally made into.

Herbert Fingarette

2. How does the metaphor of the Holy Vessel explain what Confucius means by proper li?
The metaphor of the Holy Vessel is an insult to those who use people. However, Confusius then says the only exception where it is okay is religion where its participation becomes holy. Said to Tzu-kung, “you are just a utensil, you are a sacrificial vessel of jade”. By saying this, he means that a tool is a tool, yet it is up to oneself to give it meaning. A man must learn how to turn himself into holy existence rather than a man of who just walks this earth. Like a vessel, a man has to be polished and prepared. A man must teach himself to do so through the proper li. By following the proper li, a man must give himself up to follow the Tao. He must participate in giving full respect (shu) the family, the neighbors and age while keeping the right etiquette, remaining self-disciplined, and loyalty (chung). “Such a man has come to fruition as a person; he is the consummate Man. He is a Holy Vessel.”

Martin Hiedegger
2. How does the possibility of death differ from other possibilities?
The possibility of death differs from other possibilities because it is always there, unlike the others whom always face the not yet. Having a possibility means having probability. In everyday life, the probability of death is always more than 0% because death is something in which is beyond our control and in anything we do, something could kill us at any given moment. This does not make death a fact because we do not know how or when we will actually die, which is why it is always probability.
Also, being towards death reflects back on the theory of opposites, unlike all the other possibilities. We be towards our opposite and our opposite goes on to later coming back again.
Some believe death as something that is just external, yet it is something we must face with no exceptions. To whom who cannot accept that are inauthentic, or believed to be “free from death”. “They self” is the untruth brought by being in a crowd who turns one into something they are not (turning materialistic for example). “One of these days one will die too, in the end; but right now it has nothing to do with us.” This is talking about a neighbor that is dead or is dieing. By saying “one dies”, it indicates that death is a fact. The actual character of death gets concealed, outstripped, and made non-rational. By doing this, Dasein loses itself in the “they”. When a neighbor dies, “they” try to conceal the reality of death and “they’ keep talking the dying person into the belief that he will escape death and soon return to tranquilized everydayness of the world of his concern, and this concealment is not only for the neighbor, but is as much is for those who are around him. This kind of tranquilization forces Dasein away from its death and becomes the other possibility.