" (Confessions 4) Through such methodology of working towards philosophical discovery, Augustine reaches many conclusions about God's form, recognition of truth being an "assembly" of God's eternal memory, and the existence of evil merely being distance from God. .
Plato and Augustine shared dissimilar views on the role of philosophy as a means of comprehending the afterlife. In Plato's Phaedo, the residing place of the soul after death is a major topic of discussion. Using an argument from opposites, Socrates formed a logical proof for life after death. Using examples such as awake and sleep, cooling and heating, and "all such things," the conclusion is that [opposites] come to be from one another (Phaedo 108). Therefore, death comes from being alive, but also life also comes to be from the dead. The argument established both the existence of an afterlife along with reincarnation. The view of the afterlife soon takes a somewhat Buddhist aspect. The actions of life determine where the soul goes after death. Those who are evil and tyrannical return as wolfs and hawks, while those who are virtuous but without philosophy become bees or ants. However, the pure philosopher with nothing but a love of learning join the company of the Gods (Phaedo 120).
Augustine too believes in an afterlife, but it is much different. Augustine tried to comprehend and know God, but when burdened with the body and the senses, this cannot occur. After death, the soul, if deserving, ascends to heaven. There the soul stays with God. However, unlike Plato, the soul is not sent back to earth to take the form of another living creature. Instead, it resides in the kingdom of heaven for eternity.
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Despite their many differences, Augustine and Plato share a number of philosophical views. One such view is Plato's theory of recollection. The theory claims that thoughts considered to be recollections are really bits of knowledge brought by a soul from a previous life.