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Online Lecture: How Souls Communicate in Hades

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁:
In the Myth of Er in the Republic, Plato describes various aspects of the soul’s afterlife. At 614e3-615a4, he writes that souls who have gathered on the plain of judgment are then divided into those who lived morally good lives and so rise into a place of reward and those who have not who descend into the realm of punishment. On the souls’ return to the plain after their time above or below, they greet one another and tell each other of their experiences. Some 700 years later, Proclus in his commentary on the Republic tries to answer some issues that this short passage must have raised for some philosophers in antiquity. The problem is simple enough: how can souls who do not have bodies or organs of sense communicate in this way?

𝐁𝐢𝐨:
John Finamore is a Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Iowa, where he taught from 1983 to 2022. He was Chair from 2002-2007 and 2012-2018. He has taught courses in Greek and Roman Philosophy, Greek, and Latin. He conducts research in the area of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, especially the philosophy of the late Empire. He is the author of Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul (1985), Iamblichus' De Anima: Text, Translation, and Commentary (with J. M.Dillon, 2002), and co-editor (with E. Perl) of Platonic Interpretations (Bream, Lydney, 2019) and (with C. Manolea and S. Wear) Studies in Hermias’ Commentary on Plato’s Phaedrus (Leiden 2019). John Finamore is Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, co-editor of the book series Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition, which is published by Brill, and U. S. President of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies.