The Nature Of The Soul In Plato's Phaedo

In Phaedo, Plato describes the last day of Socrates, who is waiting to be executed by the Athenian’s court. It is a very tragic moment, but there is no visible sense of grief or despair. Reader finds Socrates in the prison cell surrounded by his friends and disciples. Men are having discussion on the nature of soul and its destiny after the death. It this conversation Socrates expresses his thoughts about the soul being trapped in the human body like in the prison, and his anticipation of the moment of death as a way to release the soul. (upon which the soul would be liberated)
The motif of imprisonment and release pervades the entire dialog. Plato uses this motif as a main frame for Phaedo and he reveals it on different planes. The most obvious …show more content…
The soul has some kind of sympathetic reciprocity with the divine, which allows it to see things through, beyond their material appearance. Individual enters the state of hyper-awareness, where his consciousness is no longer distorted by needs of physical body. This genuine vision lets philosopher to turn away the look from worldly things, and concentrate on the ideal. The world is recognized as an unattractive place: like physical body, it is also a prison, but on the broader scale. However, the physical body is only a temporary possession, the soul is immortal and can outlast the death. The moment of death turns into a moment of release from the burden of the world, and individual’s soul can continue its journey. In case of philosopher, the soul will get closer to the realm of divine forms. Cultivating the love to wisdom and the pleasure of learning during the lifetime allow one’s soul to recognize the divine after the death. Thus, the death is a rather happy event, since the soul can be released from its worldly sentence. That is why Socrates seems not to be upset with taking a poison: mastering of philosophy prepared his soul to escape the mundane