Open Philosophy Library
Open Philosophy LibraryPhaedoPlato

Phaedo

By Plato

Narrated by Phaedo, Plato's dialogue recounts the final day of Socrates and his discussion of philosophy, death and the soul's immortality. Socrates develops arguments from cyclical generation, recollection, affinity and the soul's relation to life, while Simmias and Cebes raise powerful objections. The work culminates in an afterlife myth and the restrained account of Socrates drinking the hemlock.

Translator or editor
Benjamin Jowett
Publication
c. 380 BCE
Genre
Socratic dialogue; metaphysics; philosophy of death
Era
Ancient Philosophy

About this work

Phaedo is Plato's philosophical and dramatic account of the final day of Socrates. In prison, surrounded by friends, Socrates argues that philosophy prepares a person for death by training the soul to seek truth rather than submit to appetite, fear and bodily distraction. The dialogue presents several arguments for immortality. The cyclical argument proposes that living and dead arise from one another. The recollection argument connects knowledge of standards such as Equality itself with the soul's existence before birth. The affinity argument compares the soul with invisible and stable realities rather than visible and composite bodies. Simmias and Cebes challenge these claims through the images of harmony and the weaver. Their objections force Socrates to warn against hatred of reasoning and to provide a deeper account involving causes and Plato's Forms. The final argument treats the soul as the principle that brings life and therefore cannot admit death. A concluding myth imagines judgement and the soul's destinations while acknowledging that its exact details cannot be known. The work closes with Socrates calmly drinking the hemlock. By joining metaphysical argument with a witnessed death, Phaedo asks whether philosophy can shape not only beliefs about mortality but the manner in which a person lives and dies.

Contents

Related Books

Back to top of page ↑