Phaedo

1
Phaedo

• Philosophy 21
• Fall, 2004
• 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 Platos own positions (Meno,
  Phaedo, Republic)
• Late examining problems with Platos views

4
Philosophy and Death

• Socratess 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
Imperceptible Reality

• There are such things as
• The Just itself
• The Beautiful itself
• The Good itself
• Each of these is the reality which other things
  essentially are
• They should be tracked down using pure thought
  alone

7
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

8
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

9
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

10
Recollection and Immortality

• The example of Menos slave supports the theory
  that all learning is recollection
• If the theory is true, then what the soul knows
  when in its present body it must have recollected
  from a time before it was in that body
• If the soul existed outside the body, then it is
  probably immortal

11
How We Recollect

• We recollect something when we are reminded of it
  by something else
• The reminding thing need not exactly resemble the
  thing of which we are reminded
• Seeing equal objects reminds us of the Equal
  itself

12
Perceptible Objects and the Forms

• Equal objects are considerably deficient with
  respect to the Equal itself
• They strive to be the Equal itself but fall short
• We cannot know of this deficiency unless we
  already know the Equal itself
• If we already know the Equal itself, then we
  recall it when we say that perceptible things are
  equal

13
The Nature of the Forms

• The Equal itself is the standard by which things
  are equal to each other
• It is one of the Forms, like the Beautiful, the
  Just, the Good, the Pious
• These things certainly exist
• Each one is simple
• Because they are simple, the Forms are not
  subject to change

14
Knowledge of the Forms

• 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

15
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

16
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

17
Purification

• The life one leads determines ones 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

18
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

19
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 persons death
• So the soul might be wearing its last body
  (which survives as a corpse after death)

20
The Forms as Causes

• Answering the cloak objection requires an
  investigation into causes
• Physical explanations of causes are inadequate
• The Beautiful itself exists, and it is beautiful
• The cause of somethings being beautiful is
  explained by the things sharing in the Beautiful
  itself

21
Admitting the Opposite

• 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
• A triad can never become even

22
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

23
The Underworld

• When the soul leaves the body at the bodys
  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