I. Socratic/Platonist Viewpoint on the Afterlife

1. An individual person is the same thing as a soul, and a soul is an immaterial thinking substance, a mind.
2. The soul can exist without the body.
3. Death is the separation of the soul from the body.
4. The environmental story of the afterlife is determined by how you live in the present life. There are three general possibilities for any individual soul:

1. Return to a physical bodily existence in which the soul is joined (or imprisoned) in the body.
2. Remain a soul without a body - a disembodied mind.
3. Become, at least temporarily, a ghost-like individual - visible but without a physical body. (This view is similar to what Paul Edwards refers to as an astral body as a vehicle of survival).

Note: Plato's account of post-mortem survival presents disembodied and embodied modes or vehicles of survival, but disembodied post-mortem existence is clearly the highest form of survival according to Plato. This is primarily because the immaterial realm of the Forms is the highest form of existence. For Plato, the physical world (what we can see, hear, smell, and touch) is a lower kind of existence because it is constantly changing, unlike the invisible, immaterial world of Forms. Hence, bodily existence is less perfect than disembodied existence. The goal of life is for the soul permanently to escape the body. To do this, a person must consistently seek knowledge and not become pre-occupied with the physical world.

II. The Grounding of the Socratic/Platonist Viewpoint on the Afterlife

1. Socrates relies on certain aspects of human experience to infer the identity of self and soul and the reality of an afterlife. His main argument appeals to the nature of knowledge and the act of knowing.

1. Argument from recollection

Knowledge => prior existence of self => soul and (present) body are distinct

2. Argument from the eternal nature of the Forms as objects of knowledge

Knowledge => becoming one with what is known (Forms) & Forms are eternal => soul is eternal

2. Socratic viewpoint of the afterlife is situated in a larger context of how reality as a whole is perceived (e.g., the two levels of existence, the Forms, etc.). This illustrates how beliefs about the afterlife are closely connected to other aspects of human perspective, specifically other core beliefs.