Taking three of Plato’s dialogues (Cratylus, Phaedo and Timaeus) as a starting point, Torres examined the philosopher’s concept of the dualism of body and soul. “For Plato, this dualism is only fully realized in death”, he affirmed. “From a philosophical perspective, we spend our lives trying to adequately harmonize and unite our bodies and souls, and to a certain extent to subjugate our bodies to the will of our souls. In doing so, we are trying to imitate the order of the cosmos, in which the planets and other elements of the firmament (which we refer to as celestial “bodies”) move in accordance with a rational rhythm (i.e. the soul)”.

The talk was attended by around 150 secondary school students, who took an active part in the question-and-answer session at the end. The talk formed part of the Philosophy Seminar conference cycle organized by Dr. Magda Bosch. The next talk (“Descartes: Knowledge and Reality”) will be given by the lecturer Miriam Vidal-Quadras on Thursday, 23 January 2014.