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The Trial and Death of Socrates : Being the Euthyphron, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Plato
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO /?. (Boffcen THE TRIAL & DEATH OF SOCRATES *O 5' dve^Tcurroj /3toj ov /Siwrds cu>0p(j!nrip ' An unexamined life is not worth living.' (PLATO, Apol. 38 A. ) THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOCRATES BEING THE EUTHYPHRON, APOLOGY, CRITO, AND PH^EDO OF PLATO TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY F. J. CHURCH, M.A. LONDON MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1895 [ All rights reserved.] First Edition printed 1880 Second Edition, Golden Treasury Series, 1886 Reprinted 1887, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1892, March and September 1895 PREFACE. THIS book, which is intended principally for the large and increasing class of readers who wish to learn something of the masterpieces of Greek literature, and who cannot easily read them in Greek, was originally published by Messrs. Macmillan in a different form. Since its first appearance it has been revised and corrected throughout, and largely re- written. The chief part of the Introduction is new. It is not intended to be a general essay on Socrates, but only an attempt to explain and illustrate such points in his life and teaching as are referred to in these dialogues, which, taken by themselves, con- tain Plato's description of his great master's life, and work, and death. The books which were most useful to me in writing it are Professor Zeller's Socrates and the Socratic Schools, and the edition of the VI PREFACE. Apology by the late Rev. James Riddell, published after his death by the delegates of the Clarendon Press. His account of Socrates is singularly striking. -
The Phaedo by Plato
Selections from The Phaedo by Plato The Death of Scorates, David, 1787. [The Phaedo tells the story of Socrates’ final moments spent, as one would expect, in philosophical dialogue with his friends. The main subject of the dialogue is the immortality of the soul. The Phaedo is one of Plato’s middle period dialogues and, as such, reveals much of Plato’s own philosophy. In the arguments Socrates puts forth for the immortality of the soul we find a clear exposition of both Plato’s metaphysics as well as his epistemology. In the first section we find Socrates explaining to his friends why a true philosopher does not fear death. Philosophy is here described as a preparation for death.] ECHECRATES: Were you there with Socrates yourself, Phaedo, when he was executed, or 57 did you hear about it from somebody else? PHAEDO: No, I was there myself, Echecrates. ECHECRATES: Then what did the master say before he died, and how did he meet his end? I should very much like to know. None of the people in Phlius go to Athens much in these days, and it is a long time since we had any visitor from there who could give us any definite b information, except that he was executed by drinking hemlock. Nobody could tell us anything more than that. PHAEDO: Then haven't you even heard how his trial went? 58 ECHECRATES: Yes, someone told us about that, and we were surprised because there was obviously a long interval between it and the execution. How was that, Phaedo? PHAEDO: A fortunate coincidence, Echecrates. -
Plato's Phaedo As a Pedagogical Drama
Ancient Philosophy 33 (2013) ©Mathesis Publications 333 Plato’s Phaedo as a Pedagogical Drama Sarah Jansen The Phaedo has long been recognized as dramatic in nature (see, e.g., Jowett 1892, 193). Indeed, the dialogue’s dramatic portrayal of a Herculean Socrates attacking the heads of a hydra naturally invites this assessment (89c). At the out- set of the dialogue Socrates and the fourteen named companions are juxtaposed with Theseus and the fourteen Athenian youth, on their way to defeat the Mino- taur (58a-c).1 Also, Socrates’ death scene is particularly dramatic. Fifteen com- panions, the exact number of a tragic chorus, surround the dying Socrates and lament (117c-d).2 Reflection on this scene has prompted scholars to speculate that it is intended to ‘lend moving force’ to the tragic perspective and to ‘rouse’ readers’ emotions (see Halliwell 1984, 57-58 and Crotty 2009, 87, respectively). Despite these scholarly observations and compelling evidence that the dia- logues were treated as dramatic performance literature in antiquity (see Charal- abopoulos 2012), a number of key questions have yet to be satisfactorily and systematically answered: What is drama?; What is the Phaedo a drama about?; What is the function, if any, of the dramatic elements of the Phaedo? I undertake to answer these questions. I conclude with some thoughts about Plato’s purpose in writing dramatic dialogues and Plato’s attitude toward poetry. One of my aims throughout will be to demonstrate how a proper understanding of the literary dimension of the Phaedo sheds light on the philosophical content of the dialogue. -
Remembering Music in Early Greece
REMEMBERING MUSIC IN EARLY GREECE JOHN C. FRANKLIN This paper contemplates various ways that the ancient Greeks preserved information about their musical past. Emphasis is given to the earlier periods and the transition from oral/aural tradition, when self-reflective professional poetry was the primary means of remembering music, to literacy, when festival inscriptions and written poetry could first capture information in at least roughly datable contexts. But the continuing interplay of the oral/aural and written modes during the Archaic and Classical periods also had an impact on the historical record, which from ca. 400 onwards is represented by historiographical fragments. The sources, methods, and motives of these early treatises are also examined, with special attention to Hellanicus of Lesbos and Glaucus of Rhegion. The essay concludes with a few brief comments on Peripatetic historiography and a selective catalogue of music-historiographical titles from the fifth and fourth centuries. INTRODUCTION Greek authors often refer to earlier music.1 Sometimes these details are of first importance for the modern historiography of ancient 1 Editions and translations of classical authors may be found by consulting the article for each in The Oxford Classical Dictionary3. Journal 1 2 JOHN C. FRANKLIN Greek music. Uniquely valuable, for instance, is Herodotus’ allusion to an Argive musical efflorescence in the late sixth century,2 nowhere else explicitly attested (3.131–2). In other cases we learn less about real musical history than an author’s own biases and predilections. Thus Plato describes Egypt as a never-never- land where no innovation was ever permitted in music; it is hard to know whether Plato fabricated this statement out of nothing to support his conservative and ideal society, or is drawing, towards the same end, upon a more widely held impression—obviously superficial—of a foreign, distant culture (Laws 656e–657f). -
A Short History of Greek Mathematics
Cambridge Library Co ll e C t i o n Books of enduring scholarly value Classics From the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, Latin and Greek were compulsory subjects in almost all European universities, and most early modern scholars published their research and conducted international correspondence in Latin. Latin had continued in use in Western Europe long after the fall of the Roman empire as the lingua franca of the educated classes and of law, diplomacy, religion and university teaching. The flight of Greek scholars to the West after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 gave impetus to the study of ancient Greek literature and the Greek New Testament. Eventually, just as nineteenth-century reforms of university curricula were beginning to erode this ascendancy, developments in textual criticism and linguistic analysis, and new ways of studying ancient societies, especially archaeology, led to renewed enthusiasm for the Classics. This collection offers works of criticism, interpretation and synthesis by the outstanding scholars of the nineteenth century. A Short History of Greek Mathematics James Gow’s Short History of Greek Mathematics (1884) provided the first full account of the subject available in English, and it today remains a clear and thorough guide to early arithmetic and geometry. Beginning with the origins of the numerical system and proceeding through the theorems of Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes and many others, the Short History offers in-depth analysis and useful translations of individual texts as well as a broad historical overview of the development of mathematics. Parts I and II concern Greek arithmetic, including the origin of alphabetic numerals and the nomenclature for operations; Part III constitutes a complete history of Greek geometry, from its earliest precursors in Egypt and Babylon through to the innovations of the Ionic, Sophistic, and Academic schools and their followers. -
ON PLATO's CONCEPT of REASON by M. Cole Powers, BA, Philosophy
ON PLATO’S CONCEPT OF REASON By M. Cole Powers, B.A., Philosophy (McGill 2013) A thesis presented to Ryerson University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of PHILOSOPHY Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2016 © M. Cole Powers 2016 AUTHOR'S DECLARATION FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF A THESIS I, Cole Powers, hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii ON PLATO’S CONCEPT OF REASON MATHEW COLE POWERS MASTER OF ARTS ‐ PHILOSOPHY 2016 RYERSON UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT What is reason? A number of contemporary philosophical schools of thought have sought, implicitly or explicitly, to answer the question. That an answer to the question be found is of utmost importance for the practice of philosophy, and yet none seems to be forthcoming. In this thesis, we propose to examine Plato’s concept of reason. Our method in the thesis, however, is to proceed negatively: first, we examine the misology passage from the Phaedo 89d: why is the greatest evil to become a misologue (hater of reason)? What does this say about Plato’s conception of reason? What is the connection between reason, pleasure, and pain? Next, we move to the Phaedrus, where a more constructive account is offered. -
Plato As a Philosophy Salesman in the Phaedo Marlon Jesspher B
Philosophy for Business – Issue 80 – 11th February 2017 http://www.isfp.co.uk/businesspathways/ Plato as a Philosophy Salesman in the Phaedo Marlon Jesspher B. De Vera Introduction In this paper, I attempt to argue that Plato’s main intent in the Phaedo is not to build and present an argument for the immortality of the soul, but rather to elevate, promote, and in a sense “sell” philosophy as the highest pursuit of humanity. As an initial support for this argument, it is worth emphasizing that the Phaedo presents in a somewhat dramatic manner how Socrates spent the last day of his life philosophizing with his students. Thus, it can be said that the setting of the Phaedo in itself already sets an appropriate backdrop against which philosophy can be promoted as the ultimate human endeavour that is worth undertaking, in the sense that even in the face of death, the true lover of wisdom would still choose to spend his or her remaining time on earth practicing philosophy. However, it would not be sufficient to simply rely on this connection with the dialogue’s dramatic setting to assert that the dialogue’s main purpose is to promote and “sell” philosophy. Thus, I now attempt to strengthen this assertion further by presenting three supporting arguments. 1. Plato’s main intent is to promote philosophy to the Pythagoreans, and not to construct proofs for Pythagorean beliefs It is important to note that Socrates’ main discussants in the dialogue, Simmias and Cebes, are Pythagoreans who had core beliefs on the immortality of the soul, reincarnation, and the notion that the body contaminates the soul. -
“Follow the Argument” and Two Other Socratic Principles for the Christian
DRAFT VERSION ©2004 David H. Calhoun All rights reserved. “Follow the Argument” and Two Other Socratic Principles for the Christian Academic David Calhoun, Philosophy, Gonzaga University Gonzaga Socratic Club, September 10, 2004 “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” So asked the early church father Tertullian, who notoriously answered, Nothing good.1 What has philosophical reason to do with Christian faith? What has Socrates to do with Christ? Tertullian’s answer to the question has not been the majority position throughout Christian history, but it has a particular resonance for many people today. Thanks in large part to the perception of conflicts between science—especially evolutionary biology—and religion, many critics of Christianity,2 and indeed many Christians, have posited a radical distinction between reason, argument, and evidence on the one hand and Christian faith and practice on the other. Few Christians today are willing to embrace the austere anti-logic of Tertullian’s “I believe because it is absurd,”3 preferring instead to think of faith in existential-fideistic terms. I mean by “existential-fideistic” something like the standard contemporary account that faith is a matter of “just believing,” of passionately giving assent to beliefs that in principle cannot be justified rationally. Christian beliefs might not be absurd or crazy—after all, the story goes, each person is entitled to believe whatever he or she wants—but it would be mistaken to look for reasons to ground these beliefs. For anyone holding this view, Socrates makes a rather odd patron saint. Still worse, critics in the spirit of Tertullian might argue that Socrates’ philosophical mission was essentially anti-religious, insofar as he attacked the traditional religious mythology of his time and set up human rationality as a competing source of truth. -
Kant on Misology and the Natural Dialectic
volume 19, no. 47 1. Philosophy and Common Moral Cognition october 2019 Towards the conclusion of the First Section of the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant describes a process whereby a subject can undergo a certain kind of moral corruption. This process, which he calls a “natural dialectic”, can cause one to undermine one’s own or- dinary grasp of the demands of morality (4: 405).1 The threat of the natural dialectic is of particular interest since it not only gives a precise Kant on Misology and causal account of the phenomenon of moral corruption but also con- stitutes Kant’s case for the relevance of philosophy to everyday practi- cal life. The question as to whether and how philosophy can have any practical significance within our ordinary moral lives is one that Kant the Natural Dialectic himself had just raised at the conclusion of the section. According to his own account of “common moral cognition”, the cognitive capacity of ordinary human beings “is very well informed in all cases that occur, to distinguish what is good, what is evil, what conforms with duty or is contrary to it” (4: 404). This commitment stemmed from Kant’s reading of Rousseau in the 1760s.2 Rousseau had convinced him that the unreflective responses of ordinary uneducated human subjects are more reliable than those of philosophical experts. Kant’s previous prioritization of the improve- ment of the intellect and the thought that “this alone could constitute the honor of mankind” later struck him as constituting both a philo- John J. -
Notes on Plato's Phaedo
Sean Hannan The Examined Life Autumn 2015 Notes on Plato’s Phaedo 1. Background a. The Phaedo tells the story of Socrates’ final days. Taking place after the events depicted in the Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, this dialogue serves as his swansong. b. Whereas the Apology had a fairly straightforward structure, consisting mainly of Socrates’ monologues to the citizens of Athens (with a bit of back-and-forth with Meletus thrown in), the Phaedo is a full-blown dialogue. In fact, it operates as a dialogue on multiple levels. First we have the framing dialogue, which consists of the eponymous main character Phaedo’s account of Socrates’ final words, which he gives to Echecrates and others on his way home from Athens. Then we have the dialogue recounted by Phaedo, which takes place between Socrates and those who were with him in his final hours. c. First, let’s take a closer look at the framing dialogue. Phaedo (the character) is on his way back from Athens after attending the trial and execution of Socrates. As he approaches his hometown of Elis in the Peloponnese, he runs into a group of Pythagoreans, the most vocal of which is Echecrates. These men are dubbed ‘Pythagoreans’ because they follow the teachings of Pythagoras. While most of us are familiar with his theorem, Pythagoras had much more to say on the topics of philosophy and mathematics. For our purposes here, we should only note these Pythagoreans would’ve been especially open to the mathematical examples Phaedo tells them Socrates made use of in his final conversation—e.g., the difference between odd and even numbers, etc. -
The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY IN LATE ANTIQUITY The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity comprises over forty specially commissioned essays by experts on the philosophy of the period 200–800 ce. Designed as a successor to The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy (ed. A. H. Armstrong), it takes into account some forty years of schol- arship since the publication of that volume. The contributors examine philosophy as it entered literature, science and religion, and offer new and extensive assess- ments of philosophers who until recently have been mostly ignored. The volume also includes a complete digest of all philosophical works known to have been written during this period. It will be an invaluable resource for all those interested in this rich and still emerging field. lloyd p. gerson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is the author of numerous books including Ancient Epistemology (Cambridge, 2009), Aristotle and Other Platonists (2005)andKnowing Persons: A Study in Plato (2004), as well as the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus (1996). The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity Volume I edited by LLOYD P. GERSON cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao˜ Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521876421 C Cambridge University Press 2010 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. -
Ethics and Good Living
PHI 171 Ethics and Good Living Image by Rockinpaddy, “Philosophy Conference,” Creative Commons 2.0, downloaded from https://www.flickr.com/photos/rockinpaddy/217124668/in/photosstream/, last accessed July 10, 2020. Written, edited, and compiled by Dr. Samuel Bruton These materials are the product of Dr. Bruton’s successful application to participate in the University of Southern Mississippi’s Open Textbook Initiative, supported by the Office of the Provost and the University Libraries. Dr. Bruton gratefully recognizes the help of Josh Cromwell throughout the process. PHI 171 – Ethics and Good Living – Table of Contents 0. Setting the Stage 0.1 How to Take Notes p. i 1. Socrates p. 1 1.1 Socrates – Background and Themes 1.2 Apology 1.3 Apology Study Guide 1.4 Crito 1.5 Crito Study Guide 2. Stoicism p. 28 2.1 Stoicism – Background and Themes 2.1 Epictetus - Enchirichiodon I 2.2 Epictetus - Enchirichiodon II 2.3 Epictetus - Enchirichiodon III 2.4 Epictetus – Study Guide 3. Buddhism p. 48 3.1 Buddhism – Background and Themes 3.2 Buddhism – Core Values 3.3 Buddhism – The Eight Fold Path 3.4 Buddhism – Ethics 4. Christianity p. 82 4.1 Sermon on the Mount 4.2 Pascal – Background and Themes 4.3 Pensées I. 4.4 Pensées II. 4.5 Pascal – Study Guide 5. Frankl p. 111 5.1 Viktor Frankl – Background and Themes 5.2 Man’s Search for Meaning, summary and quotations 5.3 Frankl Study Questions 6. Nietzsche p. 116 6.1 Schopenhauer – Background and Themes 6.2 Schopenhauer – On the Suffering 6.3 Nietzsche – Background and Themes 6.4 Nietzschean Aphorisms 6.5 Nietzsche – Selections from Daybreak (Dawn of the Day) 6.6 Nietzsche – Study Guide 7.