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Originally Posted by fable  I wasn't clear, in that case, because I was primarily discussing soulmates. My mention of reincarnation (and Atlantis, Threefold, etc) was aimed, not at stating they were all 19th century concepts, but that they were all uncritically re-conceptualized new age notions, and that soulmates came along in the 19th century. As for Plato--reincarnation predated him, since it's mentioned in various contexts in earlier Hindi documents. That said, again it bears little or no relationship to the modern new age pop version. |
No, it's me who wasn't clear.
When I talked about the hindu reincarnation, I was just joking it was irrelevant to the rest of my sentence. But the Plato part is about soulmates, about how the androgynous where separated in two and are trying to find their other half.
Of course, the concept has changed a lot since then, but as I said, it is where it originated. I am not a Plato specialist, but I am pretty sure he did not believe in that. In the
Symposium, it is Aristophanes who talks about the concept, so I think we can assume it was more something comical than philosophical.
As for my though on soulmates, I think pretty much the same as Mr_sir and DW. There are some people with whom we get really connected and with whom we have a special friendship/relationship, and I don't think there is only one in the world for each of us.