Phaedo (; , Phaidōn) is a dialogue written by Plato, in which Socrates discusses the immortality of the soul and the nature of the afterlife with his friends in the hours leading up to his death. Socrates explores various arguments for the soul's immortality with the Pythagorean philosophers Simmias and Cebes of Thebes in order to show that there is an afterlife in which the soul will dwell following death. The dialogue concludes with a mythological narrative of the descent into Tartarus and an account of Socrates' execution.
Background The dialogue is set in 399 BCE, in an Athenian prison, during the last hours prior to the death of Socrates. It is presented within a frame story by Phaedo of Elis, who is recounting the events to Echecrates, a Pythagorean philosopher.
Characters
Speakers in the frame story: Phaedo of Elis: a follower of Socrates, a youth allegedly enslaved as a prisoner of war, whose freedom was purchased at Socrates' request. He later founded a school of philosophy. Echecrates of Phlius: A Pythagorean philosopher about whom little else is known. Speakers in the main part of the dialogue: Socrates of Alopece: a philosopher in his 70s, sentenced to death by the Athenians for impiety. Simmias and Cebes of Thebes: followers of Socrates and students of the Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus of Croton. As relayed in the Crito, which takes place a day or two earlier, they had arranged a plan to help Socrates escape from prison and live in exile, which he had declined. Crito of Alopece: a childhood friend of Socrates, who unsuccessfully attempts to convince him to escape from prison in the Crito. In the Phaedo, he takes responsibility for Socrates' body after his death and sacrifices a rooster to Asclepius on his behalf. Other people present: Xanthippe, wife of Socrates: early in the dialogue, she becomes distressed, and Socrates has her taken away. Plato's portrayal of her is generally sympathetic, unlike Xenophon and later biographers, who portray her as inter-personally difficult and unpleasant. Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, Menexenus, sons of Socrates: aged roughly 17, 11, and 3 respectively. Apollodorus of Phaleron: A follower of Socrates who is unable to stop weeping, he is frequently portrayed by others as flamboyant and manic. He also appears in the Symposium, where he relates the narrative of the dialogue to a friend, and in the Apology, where he offers up funds to pay Socrates' fine. Critobulus of Alopece, son of Crito Hermogenes of Alopece: a follower of Socrates. He is also one of the main speakers in Plato's Cratylus. Epigenes, son of Antiphon: A follower of Socrates, about whom nothing else is known. Aeschines of Sphettus: a Socratic philosopher who wrote dialogues, some fragments of which survive. Antisthenes: a Socratic philosopher and student of Gorgias, he wrote philosophical dialogues and speeches, none of which have survived. Later members of the Cynic school of philosophy saw him as their founder. Ctesippus of Paeania: A follower of Socrates, about whom little is known outside his appearance in the Lysis and Euthydemus. Menexenus, son of Demophon: A follower of Socrates, he is a speaker in the Lysis and in the Menexenus, which is named after him. Phaedondas of Thebes: According to Xenophon,Mem. 1.2.48 Phaedondas was a member of Socrates' inner circle along with Crito, Simmias, and Cebes. However, nothing else about him is known. Euclid of Megara: a Socratic philosopher, founder of the Megarian school. He appears in the prologue of the Theaetetus. Terpsion of Megara: A friend of Euclid, about whom little else is known. He also appears with Euclid in the Theaetetus prologue.
Historical context
The Phaedo is Plato's fourth and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days, following Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito. According to the dialogues, Socrates has been imprisoned and sentenced to death by an Athenian jury for impiety.
Many of the key characters in the dialogue are associated with Pythagoreanism, a religious and philosophical doctrine that flourished early in the 5th century BCE, which taught the immortality and reincarnation of the soul after death. Simmias and Cebes are both stated in the dialogue to have studied under Philolaus of Croton,Plato, Phaedo, 61d one of the most prominent Pythagorean philosophers, and Echecrates, who is hearing the dialogue from Phaedo, is a Pythagorean from Phlius, which was a stronghold of Pythagoreanism well into the 4th century BCE, when the dialogue is set. Many of the topics that are discussed in the dialogue are thought to derive from the doctrines of Philolaus, including the discussion of suicide, the alternation of opposites, and the harmonic attunement of the soul. Plato himself likely learned Pythagorean doctrines from his close friendship with Archytas of Tarentum, a philosopher and statesman from Magna Graecia who made contributions to mechanics, number theory, and acoustics.
Style, dating, and authorship The Phaedo is one of the dialogues of Plato's middle period, along with the Republic and the Symposium.
Summary
The dialogue is told from the perspective of one of Socrates's students, Phaedo of Elis, who was present at Socrates's death bed. Phaedo relates the dialogue from that day to Echecrates, a Pythagorean philosopher.
Phaedo explains that a delay occurred between Socrates' trial and his death, because the trial had occurred during the annual voyage of the Ship of Theseus to Delos, during which time the city is kept "pure" and no executions are performed. Phaedo then tells Echecrates who else was present on the day of the execution, and how Socrates's wife Xanthippe was there, but was very distressed and Socrates asked that she be taken away.Plato, Phaedo, 57a–59b
Introduction Socrates, who has just been released from his chains, remarks on the irony that pleasure and pain, while opposites, are frequently encountered one after the other; people who pursue pleasure often find themselves in pain soon after, while he is experiencing pleasure having been removed from bonds that were causing pains in his leg. Cebes, on behalf of Socrates' friend Evenus, asks Socrates about the poetry he has been writing while in prison, and Socrates relates how, bidden by a recurring dream to "make and cultivate music", he wrote a hymn and then began writing poetry based on Aesop's Fables.Plato, Phaedo, 59b–61c
Socrates tells Cebes to "bid Evenus farewell from me; say that I would have him come after me if he be a wise man." Simmias expresses confusion as to why they ought hasten to follow Socrates to death. Socrates then states "... he, who has the spirit of philosophy, will be willing to die; but he will not take his own life." Cebes raises his doubts as to why we should be eager to die, if suicide is prohibited. Socrates replies that while death is the ideal home of the soul, to commit suicide is prohibited as man is not sole possessor of his body, he is actually the property of the gods. But the philosopher always to rid himself of the body even in life, to focus solely on things concerning the soul, because the body is an impediment to the attainment of truth.Plato, Phaedo, 62b–65a.
Of the senses' failings, Socrates says to Simmias in the Phaedo: Did you ever reach them (truths) with any bodily sense? – and I speak not of these alone, but of absolute greatness, and health, and strength, and, in short, of the reality or true nature of everything. Is the truth of them ever perceived through the bodily organs? Or rather, is not the nearest approach to the knowledge of their several natures made by him who so orders his intellectual vision as to have the most exact conception of the essence of each thing he considers?Plato, Phaedo, 65e.
The philosopher, if he loves true wisdom and not the passions and appetites of the body, accepts that he can come closest to true knowledge and wisdom in death, as he is no longer confused by the body and the senses. In life, the rational and intelligent functions of the soul are restricted by bodily senses of pleasure, pain, sight, and sound.Plato, Phaedo, 65c. Death, however, is a rite of purification from the "infection" of the body. As the philosopher prepares for death his entire life, he should greet it amicably and not be discouraged upon its arrival, for since the universe the gods created for us in life is essentially "good", why would death be anything but a continuation of this goodness? Death is a place where better and wiser gods rule and where the most noble souls serve in their presence: "And therefore, so far as that is concerned, I not only do not grieve, but I have great hopes that there is something in store for the dead ... something better for the good than for the wicked."Plato, Phaedo, 66a–67d. The soul attains virtue when it is purified from the body: "He who has got rid, as far as he can, of eyes and ears and, so to speak, of the whole body, these being in his opinion distracting elements when they associate with the soul hinder her from acquiring truth and knowledge – who, if not he, is likely to attain to the knowledge of true being?"Plato, Phaedo, 65e–66a.
Cebes voices his fear of death to Socrates: "... they fear that when she [the soul] has left the body her place may be nowhere, and that on the very day of death she may perish and come to an end immediately on her release from the body ... dispersing and vanishing away into nothingness in her flight."Plato, Phaedo, 70a.
In order to alleviate Cebes's worry that the soul might perish at death, Socrates introduces four arguments for the soul's immortality:
Cyclical argument The first argument for the immortality of the soul, often called the Cyclical Argument, supposes that the soul must be immortal since the living come from the dead. Socrates says: "Now if it be true that the living come from the dead, then our souls must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they have been born again?". He goes on to show, using examples of relationships, such as asleep-awake and hot-cold, that things that have opposites come to be from their opposite. One falls asleep after having been awake. And after being asleep, he awakens. Things that are hot came from being cold and vice versa. Socrates then gets Cebes to conclude that the dead are generated from the living, through life, and that the living are generated from the dead, through death. The souls of the dead must exist in some place for them to be able to return to life. Socrates further emphasizes the cyclical argument by pointing out that if opposites did not regenerate one another, all living organisms on Earth would eventually die off, never to return to life.Plato, Phaedo, 69e–72d.
Recollection argument Cebes realizes the relationship between the Cyclical Argument and Socrates' Theory of Recollection. He interrupts Socrates to point this out, saying:
... your favorite doctrine, Socrates, that our learning is simply recollection, if true, also necessarily implies a previous time in which we have learned that which we now recollect. But this would be impossible unless our soul had been somewhere before existing in this form of man; here then is another proof of the soul's immortality.Frede 1978, 38
Socrates' second argument, which is based on the theory of recollection as outlined in the Meno, posits that, since it is possible to draw information out of a person who seems not to have any knowledge of a subject prior to his being questioned about it, that implies that the soul existed before birth to carry that knowledge, and is now merely recalling it from memory.Plato, Phaedo, 72e–77a.
Affinity argument