Affinity

Overview and Context

• Instructor plans to near-complete the Fido reading and begins The Republic on Friday; acknowledges reading questions not posted yet and promises to post them after teaching.

• The class schedule includes a potential limited time on The Republic Friday, with a buffer day if behind.

• The session pivots to a playful, practical exploration of Plato’s ideas after reading Plato’s Apology and examining the nature of a non-apology.

• The instructor stages a playful reading exercise: assigning students to perform roles (Socrates, Meletus, bearded “philosophers”) to enact a satirical dialogue from the Apology; emphasizes the performative reading to illuminate argumentative style.

• The class connects to Plato’s themes, particularly the nature of virtue, the soul, and the philosopher as a lover of wisdom; foreshadows a discussion on why only philosophers may be truly virtuous.

• Recurring meta-point: distinguishing genuine virtue and wisdom from superficial appearances (parallels with political rhetoric, Sophists, and the pursuit of money/power).

• The lecturer situates the discussion within a broader movement from Plato’s Apology to the Phaedo’s arguments about the soul’s immortality and the theory of forms.

• Interludes include humorous asides (e.g., vegan joke, everyday anecdotes) to illustrate how ideas connect to common sense and everyday experience.

• Transition: the discussion moves from satirical reading to a substantive analysis of the soul’s immortality: three classical arguments, objections, and responses, followed by a turn toward Aristotle’s critique and then Aquinas for broader theological context.

Key Concepts Introduced

• The three traditional arguments for the soul’s immortality in the Platonic/Aristotelian tradition:

  • The Cyclical (or Reincorporation) Argument

  • The Recollection (Anamnesis) Argument

  • The Affinity (or