Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mls@sfsup.att.com (Mike Siemon) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: After Death, What? Message-ID: Date: 13 May 91 05:27:51 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 27 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , davidbu@loowit.wr.tek.com (David E. Buxton) writes: > It has become clear to me that the popular views of body, soul, spirit come > from Plato who believed in re-incarnation. How can this become clear when Plato did not say anyting supportive of reincarnation, nor are his ideas about the soul (cf. _Phaidon_) much like any modern "popular" notions? Have you ever read any Plato, David? or are you just using his name as some old, influential non-Christian on whom to cast blame? Plato seems to have believed (at least, this is the simplest way of reading what he wrote, but Plato is always dangerous to take too simple-mindedly) that souls are eternal and pre-existed bodies. If you are looking for a philosopher who makes a tripartite division, it would be better to read Aristotle -- and *his* division is not body/soul/ spirit (no such division exists in any Greek I am familiar with) but that of vegetative/animal/rational SOULS. -- Michael L. Siemon "O stand, stand at the window, m.siemon@ATT.COM As the tears scald and start; ...!att!attunix!mls You shall love your crooked neighbor standard disclaimer With your crooked heart." [Or some of the Gnostics. I think people are confusing some of the outgrowths of neo-Platonic philosophy with Plato himself. Sort of like confusing Karl Barth with John Calvin... --clh]