Phaedo

1. Phaedo Philosophy 1 Spring, 2002 G. J. Mattey

2. Plato • Born 427 BC • Lived in Athens • Follower of Socrates • Founded the Academy • Tried and failed to influence politics in Syracuse • Died 347 BC

3. The Dialogues • Plato wrote a number of dialogues between Socrates and his contemporaries • They are usually divided into three periods • Early: concerning Socrates and his unsuccessful quest for an account of virtue (Euthyphro) • Middle: developing Plato’s own positions (Phaedo, Republic) • Late: examining problems with Plato’s views

4. Philosophy and Death • Socrates’s imminent execution sets the stage for the dialogue • He maintains that one aim of practicing philosophy is to prepare for death • Philosophy frees the soul from the body as much as possible in life • So the philosopher is thought by the many as being close to death

5. The Body • The body is a hindrance to knowledge • There is no truth in sight, hearing, etc. • Reasoning comes closest to revealing reality • We reason best when the body is not troubling the soul • The body gives rise to needs and desire, which in turn produce disruptive conflict

6. Virtue • The philosopher, the lover of wisdom, is contrasted with the lover of the body • To face death “courageously” through fear of greater evil is inconsistent • To be moderate in order to enhance pleasure is to be mastered by pleasure • Only the philosopher can behave truly virtuously, by despising the body

7. Immortality • The soul can attain true knowledge only if it is separated from the body • True knowledge can be attained after death only if the soul continues to exist • How can it be shown that the soul is immortal? • This requires “a good deal of faith and persuasive argument”

8. Argument From Opposites • Opposites come to be only from opposites • Life is the opposite of death • So, life comes to be through death • Life can come from death only if the soul already exists without the body • The soul exists without the body only due to the death of a previous body • So, the soul exists after death

9. The Forms • The Equal itself is not the same as things that are equal to each other (e.g., having the same length) • The Equal itself is the standard by which things are equal to each other • Other such standards include the Good and the Beautiful • These standards are called “Forms” (eidos) • They exist apart from the objects of the senses

10. Recollection • The soul can know the Forms, but not through bodily experience • So it either knew the Forms from birth, it acquired the knowledge at birth, or else it recollected them • If the Forms were known from birth or were acquired at birth, we would always know them • But many people do not know the Forms • So, the Forms are known through recollection

11. Argument from Recollection • The soul can only know the Equal itself by recollection • Recollection requires existence before birth • So, the soul existed before birth • If the soul existed before birth, then it existed after death [from prior argument] • So, the soul exists after death

12. Argument from Simplicity • If the soul ceases to exist, it must be because it it has decomposed • The Forms are simple and incapable of decomposition • The soul resembles the Forms in its simplicity • So, the soul is incapable of decomposition • So, the soul cannot cease to exist

13. Purification • The life one leads determines one’s condition after death • Polluted souls will be unhappy • Eventually they will be reincarnated into an animal suited to their vices • Only the completely pure can join the gods and attain true knowledge • This is why philosophy is training for death

14. The Harmony Objection • The Pythagoreans conceived of the soul as a harmony and the body like a lyre • The harmony ceases to exist when the lyre is destroyed, so the soul would cease to exist upon the death of the body • But a harmony is formed after the lyre, so if the soul were the harmony of the body, recollection would be impossible • And we could not explain virtue and vice in terms of harmony and disharmony • So the harmony account of the soul is rejected

15. The “Cloak” Objection • The soul is said to outlast many bodies because it existed before those bodies • Similarly, a man exists before many cloaks he wears out, and yet the last cloak of a person survives after the person’s death • So the soul might be wearing its “last body” (which survives as a corpse after death)

16. Admitting the Opposite • Socrates must make a digression about the causes of generation to answer the “cloak” objection • He explains change through the Forms • Forms do not admit of their opposites • E.g., the Odd can never be the Even • What necessarily brings along a property does not admit the opposite of that property • The triad is odd, and so it cannot be even

17. The Final Argument • The soul can only bring life to the body into which it enters • So, the soul does not admit the opposite of life • The opposite of life is death • So, the soul never admits death • So, the soul is deathless • What is deathless is indestructible • So, the soul is indestructible

18. The Underworld • When the soul leaves the body at the body’s death, it journeys to the underworld • Socrates gives a detailed description (which he admits is not certain) of the underworld • The wicked receive repeated punishment until they repent • The virtuous are freed to live in the sunshine in beautiful dwelling places on the surface of the earth, and he hopes to join them soon