Comparing Plato And Pico

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Plato and Pico, though eras apart, would argue that man possesses a gift beyond one’s superficial, earthly senses. The sophistication of man, beyond the innate instincts, ultimately comes down to, ironically, a simple concept of common sense: the awareness of our own mortalities. This seemingly unimportant detail, compared to the rest of our attributes, is in fact everything that makes the difference; everything that shaped the way mankind came to be.

Man’s awareness of his own mortality not only sparks the notion of purpose in their lives, but also the question of the afterlife. What awaits and lies beyond the lives and existence on this universe? Thus, came the Western concept of the divine and a higher power that mankind must …show more content…
With the conclusion in mind, Socrates introduces the theory of opposites, in which everything in the universe gives meaning to one another through its antithesis. For example, life is what gives birth to the concept of death, and vice versa. Without one, the opposite would lose meaning and significance. Socrates further argues that opposites, in this case, life and death, cannot coexist. He goes on, making his second point, that the soul is the carrier of life, and carriers, according to logic, cannot coexist with the opposite of what it carries. Therefore, soul cannot coexist with death, ultimately, making it invulnerable to death, or in another word, immortal. After death, the soul proceeds in the life cycle, and is reincarnated with all the previous knowledge forgotten. Throughout life, as one engages in proper questioning and contemplating, he regains and recollects the lost knowledge.

Through philosophy and questioning, man elevates himself closer to the realm of the divine, which one finally achieves through the release of earthly senses at death. On earth, a man must recognize that the physical senses are simply stimuli for the recollection. It is the culmination of good conduct and contemplation stimulated by the senses that one reaches the ideal state of mind. Higher thinking and the abandonment of inferior senses gift humans with spiritual divinity and
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