Phaedo

In the Phaedo, Plato provides several arguments in an attempt to prove the immorality of the soul. In this essay, I will focus on his Final Argument, which describes the Forms as causes, subject to destruction or displacement when the particular undergoes some change. Next, I will show how Socrates applies these ideas to argue for the immortality of the soul. Finally, I will present a few reservations I have about the validity of this argument. The Final Argument emerges from Socrates’ response…

and the Phaedo Meno and Phaedo are two important works by Plato (429–347 BC). Plato was greatly influenced by Socrates and included Socrates as basis of many of his literary works. Meno deals specifically with virtue and whether it can be taught. Phaedo is significant as it reveals the conviction of a truth-seeker just before dying for a cause. Phaedo narrates conversation that Socrates had with his disciples in his last day in the ‘gaol’, ahead of consuming the hemlock. Both Meno and Phaedo…

Plato’s Phaedo It all starts when Echecrates asks Phaedo to tell him how was the last day of the life of Socrates and Phaedo agrees to do so. He starts by saying that Socrates, Apollodorus, Simmias, Cebes, Crito, and the own Phaedo were there. The whole argument of their dialogue is about the soul, whether the soul was before the body or the body was before the soul. Socrates says that pleasure and pains are very united, although they never happen at the same time, but that one is followed by…

In Phaedo, Simmias believes that the soul is similar to the harmony made from an instrument. Socrates points out two statements that make Simmias rethink his views on the soul and the body. As Socrates turns down Simmias 's theory of the soul, not only is he able to convince Simmias, he is also able to make great arguments that support his ideas on how the soul cannot be relatable to the attunement of an instrument. Simmias 's opinion on the soul is that the harmony that is produced by an…

In the Apology Socrates does not speak at great length about human knowledge; however, his views towards it take shape quickly in the dialogue. Socrates knew that he was on trial for holding a particular type of knowledge that he could only believe was human.1 Socrates explained that the Oracle at Delphi proclaimed he was the wisest man in Athens. ( Apology, 21a) This created a conundrum for Socrates as he believed that he was not wise at all. ( Apology, 21b.) Socrates believed this was wrong…

types of knowledge. Therefore, when it enters a new human body, that person has the ability to recollect certain knowledge, but the body never learns it just recollects. He goes on to explain this theory more in Phaedo, with different ideas. The different ideas that were proposed in Phaedo were humans automatically possess knowledge and right explanations in them. Their knowledge comes straight from the soul and don’t learn or teach anything. He also uses the ideas of sense perception and the…

The exchange happens in the little Peloponnesian town of Phlius, home to Echecrates. Echecrates is being gone to by Phaedo, one of Socrates' admirers who was available at his passing. Echecrates has heard the account of Socrates' trial (described in The Apology), yet has additionally heard that there was a long defer between the trial and Socrates' execution. Phaedo brings up that the day preceding the trial of Socrates, the Athenians had wrapped up the boat to Delos. Consistently, the Athenians…

evidence and explanation that validates his reasoning. The arguments instituted by Socrates on death and the continuation of the soul give validation to the belief that death is not the end and we ought not fear it. In Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo there is constant discussion over the afterlife and how to handle impending death. Socrates was sentenced to die by the public court for corrupting the youth, creating and believing in false idols, and angering most of the people in his…

the instrument. Through reading Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, one gains perspective on Socrates’ conception of the body, as a prison. The body as a prison metaphor, as explained by Deutsch, is premised on the fundamental belief in a duality of mind and body. The metaphor, Deutsch writes, “is…

Even though, The Apology and Phaedo appeared to be two different philosophies, by the way both are exhibit and by the circumstances the protagonist finds himself in, both books share the same views in philosophy. The message that Socrates gives in these two books is that he really loved philosophy and what it meant to be a philosopher, hence everything he did, as a free man and as a convict sentence to death, was for the love of it. Socrates spends his whole life practicing philosophy, and…