Transcript Phaedo - University of California, Davis

Phaedo
Philosophy 1
Spring, 2002
G. J. Mattey
Plato
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Born 427 BC
Lived in Athens
Follower of Socrates
Founded the Academy
Tried and failed to
influence politics in
Syracuse
• Died 347 BC
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 Plato’s own positions
(Phaedo, Republic)
– Late: examining problems with Plato’s views
Philosophy and Death
• Socrates’s 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
The Body
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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
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
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”
Argument From Opposites
1.
2.
3.
4.
Opposites come to be only from opposites
Life is the opposite of death
So, life comes to be through death
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
The Forms
• The Equal itself is not the same as things that are
equal to each other (e.g., having the same length)
• The Equal itself is the standard by which things
are equal to each other
• Other such standards include the Good and the
Beautiful
• These standards are called “Forms” (eidos)
• They exist apart from the objects of the senses
Recollection
1. The soul can know the Forms, but not through
bodily experience
2. So it either knew the Forms from birth, it
acquired the knowledge at birth, or else it
recollected them
3. If the Forms were known from birth or were
acquired at birth, we would always know them
4. But many people do not know the Forms
5. So, the Forms are known through recollection
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
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
Purification
• The life one leads determines one’s
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
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
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 person’s death
• So the soul might be wearing its “last body”
(which survives as a corpse after death)
Admitting the Opposite
• Socrates must make a digression about the causes
of generation to answer the “cloak” objection
• He explains change through the Forms
• 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
• The triad is odd, and so it cannot be even
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
The Underworld
• When the soul leaves the body at the body’s 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