Phaedo
(Platão)
The Greek Philosopher, Socrates, was sentenced to death by the court
having been unjustly accused of corrupting the youth and of not
worshipping some of the Greek polis Goddesses (polis ~ state, society
in which one lives). By the Greek method of execution, those condemned
to death drank hemlock, a poison that paralyses the whole body until
asphyxiation occurs. The sentence was carried out after sunset. During
the last day of his life, waiting for the sun to fall below the
horizon, Socrates puts forth his last words to the friends and
disciples who have come to see him this dramatic afternoon in prison.
This dialogue yields the beliefs of the philosopher in the immortality
of the soul. Phaedo is one of the four dialogues of Plato that relate
to the condemnation of Socrates (the other three are: Crito, Euthyphro
and the Apology of Socrates). Phaedo is the most interesting and the
most important of them all because it exposes the beliefs of the
philosopher; it is an apologia of his own philosophy and tells the last
words of Socrates said in his last day in the gaol, before drinking the
hemlock. Socrates, in this dialogue, presents his theory of
metempsychosis, the belief in the reincarnation of the soul. While
alive, the soul must fight against the pleasures and vices of the body
in which it is condemned to live and from which it wishes to free
itself. This release is obtained through the search for knowledge and
through dialectical effort towards good and justice. A philosopher
takes care of his soul because it frees him of earthly goods; he lives
for wisdom and practises good. The belief in immortality of the soul is
demonstrated in the work by four arguments: the Argument from
Incompatibility of Opposites, the Argument from Recollection (to know
is no more than to remember), the Argument from Simplicity and the
Argument from Generation of Opposites.
Resumos Relacionados
- Plato
- The Republic
- Age Of Wisdeom(immortality)
- 502 Selected Illustrations
- Life After Death
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