Responsibility and the Myth of Er

Abstract

This chapter discusses certain puzzles arising from Plato’s myth of Er. How can the doctrine of the transmigration of souls be reconciled with human responsibility? How can the human soul control (and be responsible for) its activities during life if these activities are entirely determined by its pre-life choice? Plotinus argues that the soul made its pre-life choice by the way it lived its previous life. This choice influences, without fully determining, how the soul will lead its next life. Porphyry argues that the soul makes two choices, and that its choice of the way it will live a particular life is made during that very life. Proclus argues that no pre-life choice is such as to prevent the soul from living virtuously during the life it has chosen, and that rational souls are to blame when they choose badly, because they contain within themselves ‘unerring standards’ for choosing correctly.