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Plato's Phaedo: Exploring Socratic Existence

Dive into Plato's Phaedo, examining Socrates' last day through dialogue on soul, Forms, and ethics. Explore the art of living and dying and the quest for immortality.

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Plato's Phaedo: Exploring Socratic Existence

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  1. PLATO (427-347 BCE) • Student of Socrates • Author of Dialogues • Teacher of Aristotle • Founder of 1st university, Academy • Theories of the Forms, the Soul, Love, Justice

  2. Plato’s Phaedo • Socrates & companions, last day of his life • Literature, not history • 3 themes: • Meaning of Socratic life • Nature/immortality of the soul • Doctrine of Forms (Ideas) • Socratic existence  Platonic metaphysics

  3. Structure of the Phaedo Part I: philosophical life • Preface 57a-59d: settings/frame • Prologue 59d-69e: art of dying Part II: Immortality + the Forms • Initial logoi –3 proofs + mythos (70a-84b) • INTERLUDE 84c-91c • Final logoi/mythos • Reply to Simmias • Autobiography • Final argument • Mythos 107c-115a Part III: Epilogue 115a-118a: death

  4. Exploratory Discussions Setting 57a-63e • Frame/Pythagoreans, myth of Theseus 57a f. • 2nd “Trial”: Is there reason for hope? 63c Q’s re: philosophy & living/dying 63e-70a • What is “death”? 64c vs. 67cd vs. 70a; • Is there an art of living/dying? • An art of moral life? 64c-65a’ • An art of intellectual life? 65b-67b “ • Note: body” = cause of war, 66b-67b; common honor-based vs. philosophical morality 67b-69b Mythos and logos in the dialogue • Can the soul live without mythos?

  5. 2 basic philosophical questions What is the relationship of the soul to the body? • Materialism: • Soul depends on or reduces to body • Dualism • Soul is a separate reality from the body [Pythagoreans] • Personalism • Soul is distinct from body but depends on it What is the relationship of thought to the world? • Empiricism/perceptibles: • Concepts and language depend on/reduce to sense-data/percepts • Platonic Rationalism/”Forms” • Concepts and language organize/inform sense-experience and transcend it

  6. Socratic Existence/Ethics: the Examined Life in 2 dimensions • Socratic intellectual conscience, rationalism • Knowledge of ignorance: quest for ethical knowledge (Apol. 21a f.) • Ethical self-knowledge: recognizes his own principles, can defend them(Apol. 28b f., Crito) • Virtues of Intellect • Socratic moral conscience, idealism • Willing to act on his own principles (Crito) • Basic principles: • Never do wrong • Good = virtue and truth/education, vs. wealth and status (Apol. 28b f., Gorgias) • Virtues of Character

  7. Prologos: philosophy = art of living/dying • 2 Challenges (63be): • Disprove it is irrational to be a ‘theist’ re: the human soul, i.e. immortality not impossible • Prove it is rational to be a ‘theist’ re: the human soul i.e. good reasons it is • Socrates answers: • The human soul has properties that transcend the physical world: • Virtues of Character 64c-65a • Knowledge of the Forms 65a-66b • These  possible ‘immortality’* 66b-67e *note 2 defnsof death/dying 64c, 67d

  8. What is the art of dying? • Dying1 = physical • Dying2 = “catharsis” • Moral detachment from worldly desires • Intellectual detachment from empiricism • = Socratic art of the examined life

  9. Phaedo and Stoic Art of Living • Ascetic life-style and Moral Virtue • ‘Reason’ and Intellectual Virtue • Dying = katharsis and “detachment” from passions for worldly goods • Negative Visualization • Trichotomizing • Internalizing • Role of Critical Reason/reflection in “a good life”

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