Plato considered it petty to treat a corpse as an enemy

Evidence

Plato, Lysis, 219a. See also Plato’s Republic, where Socrates asks whether it is not “the mark of a womanish and petty spirit to deem the body of the dead an enemy” (469d). In the Timaeus, food is said to have the potential to make “the whole [human] race an enemy to philosophy and culture” (73a). As we have seen, the potential for enmity appears inherent to the body itself. Thus, were anyone to repeat the work of “the foster mother and nurse of the universe” in order to assemble a body, they would “not allow enemy placed by the side of enemy to stir up wars and disorders in the body, but he will place friend by the side of friend, so as to create health” (88e). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1015 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Plato located the potential for enmity within the body itself — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 1015; Small acts of decorum toward corpses matter more than practical logic — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 483

Broader Connections

• Plato located the potential for enmity within the body itself #complicates (0.72) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1015