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

1. Opposites come to be only from opposites
2. Life is the opposite of death
3. So, life comes to be through death
4. Life can come from death only if the soul already
   exists without the body
5. The soul exists without the body only due to the
   death of a previous body
6. 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

1. The soul can only know the Equal itself by
   recollection
2. Recollection requires existence before birth
3. So, the soul existed before birth
4. If the soul existed before birth, then it existed
   after death from prior argument
5. So, the soul exists after death

16
Argument from Simplicity

1. If the soul ceases to exist, it must be because
   it it has decomposed
2. The Forms are simple and incapable of
   decomposition
3. The soul resembles the Forms in its simplicity
4. So, the soul is incapable of decomposition
5. 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

1. The soul can only bring life to the body into
   which it enters
2. So, the soul does not admit the opposite of life
3. The opposite of life is death
4. So, the soul never admits death
5. So, the soul is deathless
6. What is deathless is indestructible
7. 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