Ancient Philosophy

Plato - Phaedo

Primary Source:

  • Plato, Phaedo from Baird and Kaufmann, Ancient Philosophy, pp. 114-129 (Stop at 78a, where Socrates concludes “For you will hardly find a better charmer than yourselves”).
    [We’re reading the first half, and will do the second half next class.]

Secondary Source:

  • Irwin, “The Theory of Socratic Definition”, “The Senses”, “Questions About the Forms”, “Soul and Body”, and “The Soul and the Self” from Classical Thought, pp. 90-94, 98-101.

Background:

From Malcolm Schofield’s Routlegde Online Encyclopedia article on Plato:

The departure point for Phaedo’s consideration of the fate of the soul after death starts with the pursuit of wisdom, which Socrates claims is really a preparation for death. This is because it consists of an attempt to escape the restrictions of the body so far as is possible, and to purify the soul from preoccupation with the senses and physical desires so that it can think about truth, and in particular about the Forms, which are accessible not to sense perception but only to thought. Pure knowledge of anything would actually require complete freedom from the body. So given that death is the separation of soul from body, the wisdom philosophers desire will be attainable in full only when they are dead. Hence for a philosopher death is no evil to be feared, but something for which the whole of life has been training. The unbearably powerful death scene at the end of the dialogue presents Socrates as someone whose serenity and cheerfulness at the end bear witness to the truth of this valuation.

Interpreters read Phaedo’s argument about recollecting Forms as concerned with the general activity of concept formation in which we all engage early in life. In fact the passage restricts recollection of Forms to philosophers, and suggests that the knowledge they recover is not the basic ability to deploy concepts (which Plato seems in this period to think a function of sense experience), but hard-won philosophical understanding of what it is to be beautiful or good or just. The interlocutors voice the fear that once Socrates is dead there will be nobody left in possession of that knowledge. The claim that pure knowledge of Forms is possible only after death implies that the path to philosophical enlightenment is not just long but a journey that cannot be completed in this life.

The proposal that the soul continues to exist apart from the body after death is immediately challenged by Socrates’ interlocutors. Much of the rest of Phaedo is taken up with a sequence of arguments defending that proposal and the further contention that the soul is immortal, pre-existing the body and surviving its demise for ever.

Dialogue Outline and Questions:

  • Introductory Conversation (57a-59c)
    • Who was present at during the last conversation with Socrates? Anyone strangely absent?
  • Socrates as Poet; the Wickedness of Suicide (59c-62c)
    • What interesting comment does Socrates make when his shackles are removed?
    • What advice does Socrates give Evenus?
    • What initial justification does Socrates provide on the wickedness of suicide?
  • The Philosopher’s Readiness to Die (62c-64c)
    • How does Cebes respond to Socrates’ above justification?
    • Why does Socrates initially posit about death and philosophers in response?
    • Note that Crito briefly interrupts things. Why might Plato include this detail?
  • The Philosopher’s Detachment from Body (64c-67b)
    • How is death defined?
    • What is the philosopher’s task with respect to wisdom? Why does this lead the philosopher to spurn the body?
    • Why does the philosopher prefer the soul in this respect?
  • Moral Virtue, Genuine and Spurious (67b-69e)
    • Putting this together, why is philosophy preparation for death? Why does this lead the philosopher to possess genuine arête of courage and temperance (sôphrosunê)? How does this recall Socrates’ discussion towards the end of the Meno?
    • What do those who fear death love? Why aren’t they displaying courage when they submit to death? Why aren’t they displaying temperance in their lives?
  • The First Argument for Immortality: The Cycle of Opposites (70a-72e)
    • Having thus defended his acceptance of death, Cebes raises a new challenge for Socrates. What is this challenge?
    • In Socrates’ claim to answer this challenge, what does he say it is sufficient to demonstrate? (Hint: it involves something familiar from the Pythagoreans.)
    • How are all things generated from opposites? How does this generation occur in general?
    • How does this explain the immortality of the soul?
  • A Complementary Argument: The Theory of Recollection (72e-77a)
  • Why would the truth of the theory of recollection demonstrate the soul’s immortality?
    • After Cebes rehearses the old argument from the Meno justifying the theory, what new argument for the theory does Socrates provide?
    • In the process of this argument, Socrates provides justification for the existence of the Platonic Forms or Ideas (Eidos) using the example of equality. What is this argument?
  • Interlude: A Childlike Fear (77a-78a)
    • Why do Cebes and Simmias need a “good charmer”?
 

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