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The Soul And Soul In Simmias's Theory Of The Soul

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In Phaedo, Simmias believes that the soul is similar to the harmony made from an instrument. Socrates points out two statements that make Simmias rethink his views on the soul and the body. As Socrates turns down Simmias 's theory of the soul, not only is he able to convince Simmias, he is also able to make great arguments that support his ideas on how the soul cannot be relatable to the attunement of an instrument. Simmias 's opinion on the soul is that the harmony that is produced by an instrument is similar to the relationship between the body and the soul. Simmias mentions that the soul exists before it enters into the body of a person however the soul is composed of elements that do not exist yet. His comparison between the soul and a harmony is that a “harmony is something invisible, …show more content…
Simmias believes that the soul controls the components that make it, however, Socrates points out that “a harmony does not direct its components but is directed by them” (Phaedo 93a). The soul is not controlled by the body like the harmony of an instrument. Harmony is dependent on the components of the instrument but a soul is not dependent on the body for any reason. The soul is not able to be a harmony because “being a soul is not a matter of degree, whereas being a harmony is” (Bostock 423). This is the main point that Socrates is able to mention to Simmias. Because a harmony is determined by the structure of an instrument, a harmony can have different types of harmonious sounds. “If it is more and more fully harmonized, be more and more fully a harmony, and if it is less and less fully harmonized, it will be less and less fully a harmony” (Phaedo 93b). This statement is not the same when it comes to the soul because a soul cannot be any more or any less of what a soul is considered to be, however, an instrument can have many variations of

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