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Phaedo

c. 360 BCE · Plato

Core ideas

  • Philosophy is a 'practice for death' — training the soul to live by reason.
  • Knowledge is recollection of Forms the soul knew before birth.
  • The soul is simple and akin to the eternal, unlike the composite, perishable body.

Summary

Set on the day of Socrates' execution, the Phaedo presents his calm defense of the soul's immortality to grieving friends. Socrates argues that the philosopher, having spent life separating reason from bodily distraction, should not fear death, which is simply the soul's release from the body.

The dialogue advances several arguments for immortality, culminating in the claim that the soul participates in the Form of Life and so cannot admit its opposite. Whatever the strength of each argument, the work's enduring power lies in its portrait of a man facing death with serenity grounded in philosophical conviction.