Phaedo[Info] [Contents] [Welcome] [Syllabus] [Resources on Plato]
This dialogue is a mixture of the real Socrates and his attitude toward death, and the philosophy of Plato after visiting with the Pythagoreans and developing his theory of forms. Socrates’s attitude toward death, especially as depicted in the death scene, was to have a great influence, especially on Zeno, the founder of Stoic philosophy.
The dialogue is narrated by Phaedo to Echecrates, some time after Socrates’s death. Echecrates asks to hear of Socrates’s last day, and Phaedo agrees to tell what took place, as he was there. The explanation of why Socrates waited so long after the trial before his execution is given: a religious ritual requires a ship to be sent to Delos, because of a promise made by Theseus to Apollo. Each year the voyage marks a holy season during which no one may be executed in order to avoid pollution of Athens. The setting is early on the last morning of Socrates’s life. The discussion lasts a long time, but ends well before sunset. Phaedo lists those present, and notes that Plato was not there because he was sick. Phaedo makes a point of describing Socrates’s attitude on this day: he appeared noble, fearless, and blessed: that he had a divine call, and would be happy in the next world. Those present were laughing and weeping. There is a moving scene when Xanthippe leaves with their children. Note Socrates’s response to her cries about his fate.
When they have taken off Socrates’s chains, he remarks that pain and pleasure are two opposites, which follow one another. He suggests a fable about them. Cebes notes that Evenus the poet had remarked at Socrates’s composing poetry: translating Aesop into verse, and composing a hymn to Apollo. Socrates explains that he has had a continual dream all his life to “make music.” Before he had assumed that this meant his practice of philosophy, but now, facing death, he wanted to be safe that it did not mean actual music. The ancient Greeks did not distinguish music and poetry. Socrates remarks that if Evenus is wise, he should not tarry. The philosopher should be willing to die. Cebes asks why suicide is considered wrong. The implication is that Socrates is too willing to die. Socrates argues that we are the possession of the gods, so to kill ourselves would wrong them, like stealing.
Socrates proclaims his sincere belief that after death he will travel to the gods who are good and wise and will be in the company of others who are better than those he will leave behind. He adds that he hopes the good will receive a greater reward than the evil. Simmias asks Socrates to convince them, and they will no longer charge him with suicide. Socrates claims that the philosopher pursues death--the separation of soul and body, when the soul exists in herself, and is parted from the body. Socrates argues that the philosopher is unconcerned with pleasures of the body, that he would rather be quit of the body, and turned completely to the soul. The philosopher, Socrates says, seeks to sever the soul from the body.
Socrates argues that when the soul seeks truth, the body deceives it. Truth is revealed in thought, and thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself. Socrates then introduces a discussion of forms: absolutes of justice, beauty, and good. These, he says, are not perceived with the bodily senses. Rather, these are perceived with an intellectual vision, with the mind alone. The body, he says, is an endless source of trouble, by creating desires in us, which keeps us from seeking the truth. To attain pure knowledge, we must be quit of the body, and the soul in herself must behold all things in themselves. So after death, when the soul is alone and without the body, we may be able to attain truth. When the body is gone, and we can converse with other pure souls, and know of ourselves the clear light everywhere, that is the light of truth. So the philosopher, who more than others, seeks to separate the soul from the body in thought, enjoys a kind of purification, and will depart this life with joy, and with no fear of death.
Cebes agrees with what Socrates has said, but asks how we can know that the soul does not die with the body: How can we know that when the man dies the soul still lives, and has intelligence? Socrates begins his response by mentioning an “ancient doctrine” which we now know belonged to the Pythagoreans, whom Plato had visited after Socrates’s death and his return to Athens. This is the doctrine of reincarnation, that souls depart at death to another world, and return, and are born from the dead. The living comes from the dead, so the soul must be in another world. Socrates supports this by discussing opposites, such as good and evil, hot and cold, pain and pleasure, one of which is generated out of its opposite. In this way, life and death are opposite, and the process of life becoming death is visible, but the process of death becoming life is not. This is the process of generation, which we see all around us in the cycles of nature. In fact, there are estimates that 1 out 7 people in the world believe in reincarnation. His proof is this: if generation were in a straight line, that life becomes death, but death does not become life, that all life would eventually die.
Simmias reminds the group of one of Socrates’s favorite doctrines, that knowledge is recollection, that coming to learn something is actually remembering what had been forgotten. This would require the pre-existence of the soul in order to have the knowledge which is recollected in this life. Socrates supports this with the example of equality: To judge two things as unequal, we must first know what equality is; but we have no experience in this life of absolute equality; therefore, this knowledge must come from some pre-existence, and the should must have existed before it was born into this life. This applies also to all the other absolutes, or forms. For all individual things we call by one name, there must be a single, essential nature which allows us to call them by the same name. This essence is the form. This form is not visible, and is never seen on earth. Nevertheless, we must use it as a standard by which we judge things to be what they are. Therefore, it comes from a pre-existence state when we were directly aware of them, and now we recollect them when we encounter things on earth that are copies of them.
Cebes repeats his objection that, even if the soul existed before birth, it might be destroyed at death. Socrates jokes about this, saying that like children we fear that “when the soul leaves the body, the wind may really blow her away and scatter her, especially if a man should happen to die in stormy weather.” Socrates returns to the theory of forms: “There are two sorts of existences, one seen, the other unseen.” “The seen is the changing, and the unseen is the unchanging.” The body is more akin to the visible and changing; the soul is more akin to the invisible and unchanging.
In proving the immortality of the soul, the Greek word is psyche, which we translate as mind, soul, or spirit. Socrates argues that the soul is like the divine: immortal, intelligible, uniform, indissoluble, and unchangeable. The philosopher, in seeking unchanging forms, becomes like them. He is practicing death, or the separation of soul and body, and thus purifies the soul of bodily elements which hold it down. Socrates discusses the souls, or ghosts, which linger around tombs, because they are too attached to the body. There is a play on words here: soma is the Greek word for body; sema is the Greek word for tomb. Socrates brings in another doctrine of the Pythagoreans: karma. If a person loves the body, he becomes more like body, and the earthly weight holds the soul down upon death; he will be reborn as a lower form of life. If a person loves the soul, he becomes more like soul, and, purified, the soul can escape upon death and rise up to its heavenly element. Philosophy is this purification; thus the philosopher alone escapes the cycle of rebirth. Faith: the raft upon which we sail through life (102)
Simmias suggests that the soul and body are analogous to harmony and the lyre. Harmony is invisible, without body, and divine, while the lyre is visible, material, and earthly. But when the lyre is broken, or the strings cut, the harmony perishes. Thus, when the body is broken and dies, the soul dies too. Cebes offers another objection: he compares the soul to a coat made by a weaver. The weaver wears the coat until he dies, and then someone else wears it. This way, the coat may outlast many men who wear it, but finally is worn out and dies. Thus, although the soul may be reborn several times and outlast several bodies, but will finally perish. Socrates interjects here some discussion of misologists, which he defines as haters of ideas. These people are those who believe in an argument, but when they run into a challenge, reject their former belief, and refuse to believe in arguments altogether. Compare those who have had their hearts broken. Socrates is alluding to those who brought him to trial and sentenced him to death.
Simmias has used an argument by analogy; this type of argument works as long as the two things being compared are similar. Simmias has argued that harmony and a lyre are similar to soul and body. This is exactly what Socrates refuses to admit: he argues that harmony is not like the soul. First, he reminds Simmias that he has already agreed that knowledge is recollection, and that the soul exists prior to its rebirth. Thus the soul exists before the body; however, the harmony of a lyre does not pre-exist, but comes after the existence of the lyre. Another difference between harmony and the soul, is that harmony is lead by the lyre; that is, the lyre causes and controls the harmony. However, the soul is not led by the body, but leads and controls it. Finally, Socrates argues that harmony admits of degrees; that is, the sound can be more or less harmonious. However, the soul does not admit of degrees; the soul is always what it is, simple and uncompounded.
Socrates says that in order to refute Cebes’s objection, he will have to discuss the process of generation and corruption, which involves the natural sciences. You might remember that at his trial, Socrates pointed out that he had been charged by the ancient accusers of dabbling in science, like the Pre-Socratics did before him. He denied it then, and denies it now. Here he says that when he was younger, he tried, but found he was incapable of these studies. Then Socrates gives a fine contrast between science and ethics, when he presents a scientific explanation of his sitting in prison, and what he sees as the real cause of his sitting in prison. (117) The scientist would explain the cause of his sitting as the contraction of muscles and positioning of bones, but the real reason (ethical reason) is that the people of Athens have condemned him to death, and he has chosen to remain in prison rather than escape. Notice the phrase Socrates uses on page 118: “through a glass darkly.” In answering Cebes’s objection, Socrates again takes recourse to the theory of forms: the forms cause physical things to be what they are: physical things are copies of forms. For example, beautiful things partake of absolute beauty. Absolute beauty is beauty-in-itself; it has no part of ugliness in it. This is true of all forms: no essential opposites ever intermingle, whether cold/hot, odd/even, or life/death.
Socrates gets Cebes to admit that it is the soul that brings life to the body. As the soul is the life-principle, it can never intermingle with death, which would be its essential opposite. Thus, Socrates says dramatically “The soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will truly exist in another world.” (127). He uses “our souls” because he was given the task of proving to those present that their souls were immortal. Socrates then adds the important conclusion that since our souls are immortal, we must take very good care of them. This brings attention to Socrates’s importance as the father of ethics. One excellent reason for right conduct is if the soul is immortal; if it is not immortal, then why be moral at all?
Socrates jokes with his friends, that the will worry about how to bury him, as if the corpse they will inter is Socrates, when in fact, Socrates will have gone on to another world. Xanthippe and their three sons reenter: two young children and one older. We see the kindness of the jailer toward Socrates, and the good feeling Socrates has toward him, even though he is the one who brings the poison. Cebes points out that the sun has not yet set, that Socrates can take his time and enjoy his last few hours. However, Socrates holds to his beliefs which he has been proving to his friends, emphasizing that he acts as he believes. Notice his attitude when he actually brings the cup of hemlock to his lips and drinks. Would you consider this a cruel and unusual form of punishment? Socrates’s last words are to repay a debt, a sacrifice he owes to Asclepius, the god of health: he wants to cover his bets, but also, remember that he is being executed for teaching false gods.
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Stephen Carden stephen.carden@kctcs.net
August 30, 1999