The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a

94 The Soul Without Barnacles
See 611a-612a. What would the soul be without the body? Socrates has us
imagine the sea god Glaucus who, though a god, has been buffeted about by the
waves and incrusted with mollusks, seaweed, and the like so that he appears more
like a “wild beast” than a divine being. The soul’s true nature, he suggests, is just
as difficult to perceive, wrapped up as it is in the body. But if it were free of the
body, what would be left? Socrates hints that it might be a single part – the
rational part, presumably – which, through love of wisdom (philosophia), would
live in contemplation of the forms (of “what is divine and immortal and what
always exists”).
Whether or not this is idle speculation is debatable, but there is something
fascinating about trying to understand what life without a body would be
like. Desires for breathing, drinking, eating, and activities of this sort would,
presumably, be no more. What else would be different?
Would gender identities cease?
What about desires for praise or feelings of shame – would they continue to
exist?
Would one still be spatially located and capable of movement?
Would one still be able to communicate with others?
Would music still be perceivable?
How would disembodied souls differ from one another?
Would they have different memories?
Would they care about their pasts or would their attention be fixed
exclusively on eternal things?
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