Life, Death and Beyond

This paper compares and contrasts beliefs about life and death and the possibility of existence beyond death. The author examines these beliefs as exemplified in several philosophical frameworks: Plato’s Republic, The Phaedo, The Apology, and as illustrated in Taoism as indicated in Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu.

From the paper:

The Chunag Tzu’s idea of life after death is very different than Plato’s in the absolute sense, but they share similar details. One shared detail is that death may not be a bad thing. In The Phaedo, one has Plato arguing that all true philosophers must join him in death. If they truly love wisdom, then they should shed off this illness that is mortal life and venture into the immortal where true wisdom can be actualized, where true knowledge exists.

Chunag Tzu holds a bit differently…one just cannot know. Knowledge about death cannot be actualized. It is an unknown. In fact all things are unknown. The only knowledge one can really have is that the Tao exists. In Platonism, truth exists through logic and reason. In Taoism, it is through contradiction. In Taoism, A is not A, because this world is flux, one thing is never the same thing.