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pubOne.info present you this new edition. After an interval of some months or years, and at Phlius, a town of Peloponnesus, the tale of the last hours of Socrates is narrated to Echecrates and other Phliasians by Phaedo the 'beloved disciple. ' The Dialogue necessarily takes the form of a narrative, because Socrates has to be described acting as well as speaking. The minutest particulars of the event are interesting to distant friends, and the narrator has an equal interest in them.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819933816
Langue	English

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PHAEDO
By Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
INTRODUCTION.
After an interval of some months or years, and atPhlius, a town of Peloponnesus, the tale of the last hours ofSocrates is narrated to Echecrates and other Phliasians by Phaedothe 'beloved disciple. ' The Dialogue necessarily takes the form ofa narrative, because Socrates has to be described acting as well asspeaking. The minutest particulars of the event are interesting todistant friends, and the narrator has an equal interest inthem.
During the voyage of the sacred ship to and fromDelos, which has occupied thirty days, the execution of Socrateshas been deferred. (Compare Xen. Mem. ) The time has been passed byhim in conversation with a select company of disciples. But now theholy season is over, and the disciples meet earlier than usual inorder that they may converse with Socrates for the last time. Thosewho were present, and those who might have been expected to bepresent, are mentioned by name. There are Simmias and Cebes(Crito), two disciples of Philolaus whom Socrates 'by hisenchantments has attracted from Thebes' (Mem. ), Crito the agedfriend, the attendant of the prison, who is as good as a friend—these take part in the conversation. There are present also,Hermogenes, from whom Xenophon derived his information about thetrial of Socrates (Mem. ), the 'madman' Apollodorus (Symp. ),Euclid and Terpsion from Megara (compare Theaet. ), Ctesippus,Antisthenes, Menexenus, and some other less-known members of theSocratic circle, all of whom are silent auditors. Aristippus,Cleombrotus, and Plato are noted as absent. Almost as soon as thefriends of Socrates enter the prison Xanthippe and her children aresent home in the care of one of Crito's servants. Socrates himselfhas just been released from chains, and is led by this circumstanceto make the natural remark that 'pleasure follows pain. ' (Observethat Plato is preparing the way for his doctrine of the alternationof opposites. ) 'Aesop would have represented them in a fable as atwo-headed creature of the gods. ' The mention of Aesop remindsCebes of a question which had been asked by Evenus the poet(compare Apol. ): 'Why Socrates, who was not a poet, while inprison had been putting Aesop into verse? '— 'Because several timesin his life he had been warned in dreams that he should practisemusic; and as he was about to die and was not certain of what wasmeant, he wished to fulfil the admonition in the letter as well asin the spirit, by writing verses as well as by cultivatingphilosophy. Tell this to Evenus; and say that I would have himfollow me in death. ' 'He is not at all the sort of man to complywith your request, Socrates. ' 'Why, is he not a philosopher? ''Yes. ' 'Then he will be willing to die, although he will not takehis own life, for that is held to be unlawful. '
Cebes asks why suicide is thought not to be right,if death is to be accounted a good? Well, (1) according to oneexplanation, because man is a prisoner, who must not open the doorof his prison and run away— this is the truth in a 'mystery. ' Or(2) rather, because he is not his own property, but a possession ofthe gods, and has no right to make away with that which does notbelong to him. But why, asks Cebes, if he is a possession of thegods, should he wish to die and leave them? For he is under theirprotection; and surely he cannot take better care of himself thanthey take of him. Simmias explains that Cebes is really referringto Socrates, whom they think too unmoved at the prospect of leavingthe gods and his friends. Socrates answers that he is going toother gods who are wise and good, and perhaps to better friends;and he professes that he is ready to defend himself against thecharge of Cebes. The company shall be his judges, and he hopes thathe will be more successful in convincing them than he had been inconvincing the court.
The philosopher desires death— which the wickedworld will insinuate that he also deserves: and perhaps he does,but not in any sense which they are capable of understanding.Enough of them: the real question is, What is the nature of thatdeath which he desires? Death is the separation of soul and body—and the philosopher desires such a separation. He would like to befreed from the dominion of bodily pleasures and of the senses,which are always perturbing his mental vision. He wants to get ridof eyes and ears, and with the light of the mind only to behold thelight of truth. All the evils and impurities and necessities of mencome from the body. And death separates him from these corruptions,which in life he cannot wholly lay aside. Why then should he repinewhen the hour of separation arrives? Why, if he is dead while helives, should he fear that other death, through which alone he canbehold wisdom in her purity?
Besides, the philosopher has notions of good andevil unlike those of other men. For they are courageous becausethey are afraid of greater dangers, and temperate because theydesire greater pleasures. But he disdains this balancing ofpleasures and pains, which is the exchange of commerce and not ofvirtue. All the virtues, including wisdom, are regarded by him onlyas purifications of the soul. And this was the meaning of thefounders of the mysteries when they said, 'Many are thewand-bearers but few are the mystics. ' (Compare Matt. xxii. :'Many are called but few are chosen. ') And in the hope that he isone of these mystics, Socrates is now departing. This is his answerto any one who charges him with indifference at the prospect ofleaving the gods and his friends.
Still, a fear is expressed that the soul uponleaving the body may vanish away like smoke or air. Socrates inanswer appeals first of all to the old Orphic tradition that thesouls of the dead are in the world below, and that the living comefrom them. This he attempts to found on a philosophical assumptionthat all opposites— e. g. less, greater; weaker, stronger;sleeping, waking; life, death— are generated out of each other. Norcan the process of generation be only a passage from living todying, for then all would end in death. The perpetual sleeper(Endymion) would be no longer distinguished from the rest ofmankind. The circle of nature is not complete unless the livingcome from the dead as well as pass to them.
The Platonic doctrine of reminiscence is thenadduced as a confirmation of the pre-existence of the soul. Someproofs of this doctrine are demanded. One proof given is the sameas that of the Meno, and is derived from the latent knowledge ofmathematics, which may be elicited from an unlearned person when adiagram is presented to him. Again, there is a power ofassociation, which from seeing Simmias may remember Cebes, or fromseeing a picture of Simmias may remember Simmias. The lyre mayrecall the player of the lyre, and equal pieces of wood or stonemay be associated with the higher notion of absolute equality. Buthere observe that material equalities fall short of the conceptionof absolute equality with which they are compared, and which is themeasure of them. And the measure or standard must be prior to thatwhich is measured, the idea of equality prior to the visibleequals. And if prior to them, then prior also to the perceptions ofthe senses which recall them, and therefore either given beforebirth or at birth. But all men have not this knowledge, nor haveany without a process of reminiscence; which is a proof that it isnot innate or given at birth, unless indeed it was given and takenaway at the same instant. But if not given to men in birth, it musthave been given before birth— this is the only alternative whichremains. And if we had ideas in a former state, then our souls musthave existed and must have had intelligence in a former state. Thepre-existence of the soul stands or falls with the doctrine ofideas.
It is objected by Simmias and Cebes that thesearguments only prove a former and not a future existence. Socratesanswers this objection by recalling the previous argument, in whichhe had shown that the living come from the dead. But the fear thatthe soul at departing may vanish into air (especially if there is awind blowing at the time) has not yet been charmed away. Heproceeds: When we fear that the soul will vanish away, let us askourselves what is that which we suppose to be liable todissolution? Is it the simple or the compound, the unchanging orthe changing, the invisible idea or the visible object of sense?Clearly the latter and not the former; and therefore not the soul,which in her own pure thought is unchangeable, and only when usingthe senses descends into the region of change. Again, the soulcommands, the body serves: in this respect too the soul is akin tothe divine, and the body to the mortal. And in every point of viewthe soul is the image of divinity and immortality, and the body ofthe human and mortal. And whereas the body is liable to speedydissolution, the soul is almost if not quite indissoluble. (CompareTim. ) Yet even the body may be preserved for ages by theembalmer's art: how unlikely, then, that the soul will perish andbe dissipated into air while on her way to the good and wise God!She has been gathered into herself, holding aloof from the body,and practising death all her life long, and she is now finallyreleased from the errors and follies and passions of men, and forever dwells in the company of the gods.
But the soul which is polluted and engrossed by thecorporeal, and has no eye except that of the senses, and is weigheddown by the bodily appetites, cannot attain to this abstraction. Inher fear of the world below she lingers about the sepulchre, loathto leave the body which she loved, a ghostly apparition, saturatedwith sense, and therefore visible. At length entering into someanimal of a nature congenial to her former life of sensuality orviolence, she takes the form of an ass, a wolf or a kite. And ofthese earthly souls the happiest are those who have practisedvirtue without philosophy; they are