CONTEXT
The life and teachings of Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.) stand at the
foundation of Western philosophy. He lived in Athens during a time of
transition (Athens' defeat at the hands of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War
(431-404 B.C.) ended the Golden Age of Athenian civilization) and had a
tremendous influence on the Athenian youth of his day. Socrates himself never
recorded his thoughts, so our only record of his life and thought comes from
his contemporaries. These accounts are mixed and often biased by the authors'
personal interpretations.
It seems that Socrates led a very simple life, renouncing wealth and
holding himself aloof from political ambitions, preferring instead to mingle
with the crowds in Athens' public places, engaging whomever he could in conversation.
Nonetheless, he did serve as a hoplite (heavy infantryman) in several battles
during the Peloponnesian War, and was distinguished by his fortitude and
bravery. In 399, Socrates was brought before a jury of around 500 Athenians on
charges of not recognizing the gods recognized by the state, of inventing new
deities, and of corrupting the youth of Athens.
The most likely reason for this trial is Socrates' close association
with a number of men who had fallen out of political favor in Athens. But because
an amnesty had been declared for political offenders, other charges had to be
brought against him. Socrates was found guilty by a narrow margin and then
sentenced to death. Socrates' response to the charges brought against him are
recorded by Plato in The Apology.
Plato (c. 427-347 B.C.), the author of The Phaedo, was one of Socrates'
greatest admirers, and our knowledge of Socrates stems mostly from Plato's
dialogues (for competing accounts, see Aristophanes' satirical presentation in
The Clouds and the writings of Xenophon). Plato was born into a prominent
Athenian family, and was expected to pursue a career in politics. However, the
short-lived Spartan-imposed oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants (404-403) and the
trial and execution of his mentor, Socrates, led Plato to become disgusted with
Athenian political life, and he devoted himself instead to teaching and
philosophical inquiry. To that end, he founded the Academy around 385 B.C.,
which counted Aristotle among its students. The Academy lasted in one form or
another until 527 A.D., 912 years in total, and served as the prototype for the
Western university system.
Plato's thought is mostly recorded in the form of dialogues which
feature Socrates as the protagonist. Apparently, the Socratic dialogue was a
genre form at the time; not just Plato, but many of Socrates' other students
recorded philosophical debates in this form. Plato's dialogues are generally
classed into early, middle, and late periods. The early dialogues were written
soon after Socrates' death, and in them we get the clearest picture of Socrates
and Socratic philosophy. As Plato matured, however, he developed an
increasingly distinct voice and philosophical outlook. The figure of Socrates
in the middle and late dialogues, of which the Phaedo is one, becomes more of a
mouthpiece for Plato's own views. In particular, the Phaedo has Socrates
discussing the thoroughly Platonic Theory of Forms. Though the dialogue tells
the story of Socrates' last hours before his execution, we should make no
mistake in recognizing that the account is purely fictional, and serves the
purpose of advancing Plato's theories rather than of telling an accurate story.
The Phaedo was written after Plato founded the Academy, and it is intended as a
philosophical work for an audience of philosophers.
CHARACTERS
Socrates - The
protagonist of the Phaedo, and most of Plato's dialogues. Socrates is one of
the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy, standing at
the source of the rational tradition initiated by himself, Plato, and
Aristotle. Socrates himself arguably never advanced any of his own doctrines.
However, in Plato's middle and later dialogues, the figure of Socrates no
longer represents the man himself. Instead, the figure of Socrates is used as a
mouthpiece through which Plato advances his own views. In the Phaedo we find
Socrates a seventy-year-old man about to die, and propounding all sorts of
Platonic doctrines. He is calm and contented as he faces death, confident in
the good fortune that awaits him after death.
Simmias - The
main interlocutor, along with Cebes, of the Phaedo. He is a Pythagorean
philosopher from Thebes who has come to speak with Socrates before his death.
Cebes - The
main interlocutor, along with Simmias, of the Phaedo. He is a Pythagorean
philosopher from Phaedondas who has come to speak with Socrates before his
death.
Phaedo - The
narrator and namesake of the dialogue. He is a handsome young man from Elis who
has become enamored of Socrates and his teachings. Like Plato, the historical
Phaedo dedicated himself to philosophy, and wrote Socratic dialogues in honor
of his mentor. None of Phaedo's writings are with us today.
Echecrates - A
Pythagorean philosopher from the Peloponnesian town of Phlius. He encounters
Phaedo in Phlius and asks him to tell the story of Socrates' final hours. On a
couple of occasions in the dialogue, the narrative is interrupted by a brief
conversation between Echecrates and Phaedo.
Crito - An
old friend of Socrates, of about Socrates' age. Crito is the main interlocutor
of the Crito, an earlier dialogue which takes place in Socrates' prison cell.
In the Phaedo, Crito does not participate much in the philosophical discussion,
playing the role of best friend to Socrates more than that of interlocutor.
Xanthippe - Socrates' wife. Xanthippe was reputedly a
shrewish and unpleasant woman. Considering the nonchalant way Socrates treats
both her and his children in this dialogue, however, we should hardly be
surprised. It seems that in his desire to detach himself as much as possible
from the material world, Socrates has also detached himself from his family.
Prison officer - The
man standing guard over Socrates during his month in prison. The officer has
grown very fond of Socrates, and the two have had many conversations together.
When it comes time for Socrates to die, the officer tells Socrates that he is
the finest man he has ever had the privilege of knowing, and bursts into tears.
SUMMARY
In the remote Peloponnesian town of Phlius, Echecrates encounters Phaedo
of Elis, one of the men present during Socrates' final hours. Eager to hear the
story from a first-hand source, Echecrates presses Phaedo to tell what
happened.
A number of Socrates' friends were gathered in his cell, including his
old friend Crito and two Pythagorean philosophers, Simmias and Cebes. The
account begins with Socrates proposing that though suicide is wrong, a true
philosopher should look forward to death. The soul, Socrates asserts, is
immortal, and the philosopher spends his life training it to detach itself from
the needs of the body. He provides four arguments for this claim.
The first is the Argument from Opposites. Everything, he says, comes to
be from out of its opposite, so that for instance a tall man becomes tall only
because he was short before. Similarly, death is the opposite of life, and so
living things come to be out of dead things and vice versa. This implies that
there is a perpetual cycle of life and death, so that when we die we do not
stay dead, but come back to life after a period of time.
The second is the Theory of Recollection. This theory suggests that all
learning is a matter of recollecting what we already know. We forget much of
our knowledge at birth, and can be made to recollect this knowledge through
proper questioning. That we had such knowledge at birth, and could forget it,
suggests that our soul existed before we were born.
The third is the Argument from Affinity. Socrates draws a distinction
between those things that are immaterial, invisible, and immortal, and those
things which are material, visible, and perishable. The body is of the second
kind, whereas the soul is of the first kind. This would suggest that the soul
ought to be immortal and survive death.
At this point, both Simmias and Cebes raise objections. Simmias suggests
that perhaps the soul is like the attunement of a musical instrument. The
attunement can only exist so long as the instrument exists, and no longer.
Cebes admits that perhaps the soul is long-lived, and can outlive many bodies,
but argues that this does not show that the soul is immortal.
Socrates replies to Simmias by pointing out that his theory of
attunement is in conflict with the Theory of Recollection, which proposes that
the soul existed before the body. As for Cebes, Socrates embarks on a complex
discussion of causation that ultimately leads him to lay out his fourth
argument, positing the unchanging and invisible Forms as the causes of all
things in this world. All things possess what qualities they have only through
participation in these Forms. The Form of Life is an essential property of the
soul, Socrates suggests, and so it is inconceivable to think of the soul as
ever being anything but alive.
Socrates concludes with a myth of what happens to souls after death.
Then he has a bath, says some last goodbyes, drinks the poisonous hemlock, and
drifts imperceptibly from this world to the next.
OVERALL ANALYSIS AND THEMES
The Phaedo stands alongside the Republic as the most philosophically
dense dialogue of Plato's middle period. It contains the first extended
discussion of the Theory of Forms, four arguments for the immortality of the
soul, and strong arguments in favor of the philosophical life. It also contains
Plato's moving account of Socrates' final hours and his compelling myth about
the fate of the soul after death. More than most of Plato's other writings, the
Phaedo is in constant dialogue with the Pre-Socratic theories of the world and
the soul, in particular those of Pythagorus, Anaxagoras, and Heraclitus.
Philosophically, the Theory of Forms is the most important aspect of the
dialogue. Though we find hints toward such a theory in dialogues like the Meno,
the Phaedo is the first dialogue where Forms are mentioned explicitly and play
a fundamental role in advancing Plato's arguments. Yet Plato does not seem at
all compelled to argue for the theory itself. The Forms are introduced without
any fanfare by Socrates, and immediately agreed upon by all his interlocutors.
Later, in discussing his method of hypothesis, Socrates asserts that he can
think of nothing more certain than the existence of Forms, and all his
interlocutors agree.
Due to the haste and ease with which the theory is introduced and put to
work, a number of clarifying questions are left unanswered. For instance, what
is the scope of Forms? Socrates normally alludes to non-material ideas, such as
the Form of Beauty, or the Form of Justice, though he also appeals to
numbers--such as the Form of Threeness and the Form of Oddness--to relative
terms--such as the Form of Tallness and the Form of Equality--and to the Forms
of Life and Death. An argument can be made that he also alludes to the Form of
Fire and the Form of Snow, which would open the field even wider. We might ask
what sort of things Forms are that they can encompass such a wide range.
There are also questions as to what Plato means in saying that the Form
of Equality is equal, or in saying that material objects participate in
different Forms. More detailed treatments of these questions are given in the
Commentary to sections 72e-78b and 100b-102d, respectively.
The Phaedo gives us four different arguments for the immortality of the
soul: The Argument from Opposites, the Theory of Recollection, the Argument
from Affinity, and the final argument, given as a response to Cebes' objection.
Plato does not seem to place equal weight on all four of these arguments. For instance,
it is suggested that the Argument from Affinity by no means proves the
immortality of the soul, but only shows that it is quite likely. The Theory of
Recollection and the final argument seem to be given the greatest import, as
both of them follow directly from the Theory of Forms. But while the Theory of
Recollection can only show that the soul existed before birth, and not that it
will also exist after death, the final argument purports to fully establish the
immortality of the soul, and is considered by Plato to be unobjectionable and
certain.
The account of Socrates' death gives us a portrait of a man so detached
from the needs and cares of his body that his soul can slip away without any
fuss at all. Plato does not present this as strict asceticism, though, but
rather a lack of excessive concern for earthly things. (In this sense, one
could argue Plato's ideal is somewhat similar to the Buddhist "middle
way.")
The Phaedo is one of Plato's great masterpieces, combining difficult and
profound philosophy with a lively and engaging narrative. As a result, it is
one of the rare philosophical classics that is easily readable and rewarding of
rewarding careful study.
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