On the Phaedo Dialgue

Summary of the Phaedo Dialogue

Joseph D. Sanns

Phil 201: History of Philosophy

Dr. Michael Arts

7 February 2025

 The dialogue opens with an encounter in the Prison of Socrates between Phaedo and Echecrates. Phaedo recounts the final moments and words of Socrates to Echecrates. Phaedo describes Socrates as facing death with great poise, calmness and dignity, “his mien and his language were so noble and fearless in the hour of death that to me he appeared blessed.”^[1] The main theme of Socrates’ final day was the immortality of the soul, which was explored in depth by Socrates and his friends before he took the poison.

 Phaedo recounts the dialogue between Socrates and his friends. Socrates asserts that philosophy is a lifelong preparation for dying and thus philosophers should not fear death. He explains to his friends how the body is a hindrance to obtaining truth and knowledge. It distracts the soul and the mind with physical desires and limitations. Socrates explains that he believes that knowledge, in its purest form, is only accessible when the soul is freed from the body, which is why philosophers seek to separate themselves from their bodily concerns. Death, therefore, is not an intimidating mystery, a place of fear but rather a welcome release for those who are philosophers, for they can pursue wisdom and knowledge completely unencumbered.

 Socrates presents to his friends arguments to validate his claim. One such argument is the argument of opposites. Socrates suggests that all things arise from opposites. “The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and out of sleeping waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping, and the process of generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the other waking up.”^[2] Just as sleep follows wakefulness and wakefulness follows sleep, so too life must follow death, meaning that the soul exists before and after life. Another argument he makes is the argument of recollection. He argues here that learning is simply the soul remembering knowledge already acquired before birth. He attempts to prove this theory by illustrating how we possess innate knowledge of concepts like justice. Innate knowledge serves to prove that souls existed before birth and if they existed before birth, it is logical to assume they continue to exist after death. “If you put a question to a person in a right way, he will give a true answer of himself; but how could he do this unless there were knowledge and right reason already in him?”^[3] The final argument he gives is the argument of simplicity. He asserts here that composite things-like our mortal bodies-can be broken down, wither and ultimately be destroyed, whereas simple things are indivisible, immune to withering and thus are eternal. Socrates claims the soul is a simple thing. “And what do we say of the soul? is that seen or not seen? … Then the soul is more like to the unseen, and the body to the seen”^[4] 

Some of Socrates’ friends question his argument. One suggests that perhaps the soul is rather like a harmony produced by a lyre and if the instrument is destroyed then so too is the harmony it produces. Socrates counters this by pointing out that the soul cannot merely be the harmony of bodily elements as it is the soul that governs the body, whereas a harmony does not govern a lyre but rather depends entirely on it. As such a governor, the soul dictates the body's actions and choice,s which indicate it exists independent of the body. Socrates further counters by reiterating that the soul is immaterial and eternal and is thus not subject to material things. He asserts that the soul brings life, and from what is always bringing cannot be without. He describes his opinion of the afterlife in which pure souls ascend to higher realms of wisdom and truth whereas impure souls which had not the power to overcome the desires of the body are reincarnated into lower forms of life.

As the time for Socrates' execution arrives he takes the poison assuredly and calmly, without resistance nor fear. Before dying he makes a final request that a sacrifice be made to the god Asclepius. He dies and Phaedo closes the story to Echecrates saying of Socrates that he was “the wisest, and justest, and best of all the men whom I have ever known.”^[5]

Bibliography

Plato. Phaedo. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Written c. 360 B.C.E.

^[1] Plato, “Phaedo”, 2

^[2] Plato, “Phaedo”, 14

^[3] Plato, “Phaedo”, 16

^[4] Plato, “Phaedo”, 23

^[5] Plato, “Phaedo”, 58