Plato presents the truth, immortality of the soul and the divine as the main themes of his philosophy in his books, “The Trial and Death of Socrates” and “Phaedo”. While Lao-Tzu presents the natural world, the “Tao” and “doing nothing” as the main themes in his philosophy, which he presents in his book “Tao Te Ching”. They both see their philosophies as the main and ideal way of life, which they try to pursue. Plato and Lao-Tzu being different in many aspects have specific views and values of life, which they believe are true but at the same time they are suggesting a similar approach to it.
Plato truly believes in immortality of soul and the underworld. He states in his book “Phaedo”: “Then our souls exist in the underworld”. (21) This quotation shows that Plato has strong beliefs in what he says about immortality because this statement does not have the question mark, which he uses in other statements to prove the general statement. Plato uses the “question” method to prove his statements: “And they come to be from one another?/Yes./What comes to be from being alive?/Being dead./And what comes to be from being dead?/One must agree that it is being alive.” (20) This quotation shows not only how Plato makes Cebes to answer them for himself by asking questions to him but also how Plato uses the opposites method to prove his statement. Therefore, Plato explains about immortality of soul in very logical way that seems his theories are absolutely true. Another thing that suggests the importance of the immortal soul is that he takes a lot of time and many examples to prove it, like the questions he asks to Cebes in chronological order, which lead to the main idea.
Believing in soul Plato has the strong beliefs in underworld. Plato says in his book “Phaedo”: “ Many men, at the death of their lovers, wives, or sons, were willing to go to the underworld, driven by the hope of seeing there those for whose company they longed, and being with them” (16) Plato...