Structure of the Phaedo

Part I: Prologue 57a-69Part II: Logos 70a-107b

1st arguments & myth of reincarnation 70a-84c

Challenge & first reply 84c-95e

Forms, final argument & myth 107c-115a

Part III: Epilogue 115a-118a: death

2. Interlude: Simmias and Cebes

Simmias Metaphor of

harmony (soul) and lyre (body)

Clearly music made by lyre and ‘harmony’ in the lyre destroyed when it is.

Cebes Metaphor of

weaver and cloak Body is “re-

created” but at death, body and soul cease to exist.

Pythagoreans on Mind/Body

Dualism“Soul”

= real, albeit not physical entity

= unity-basis of thought, action

can’t be reduced to its physical basis

Person = “soul” not body If (E) non-physical properties, must there (E) non-physical substances owning them?

Problems with “soul”Doesn’t “soul” depend on body?Can soul be “permeated” by physical? How can one affect other?= ‘akin’ to Forms?

Harmony Argument1. If Y depends on X & X is destroyed, Y is

also.2. Soul/mind :: body as harmony (harmonia) ::

lyre.3. The harmony, though “invisible,” depends

on the lyre and its strings, which are visible, composite, destructible, so that if the lyre is destroyed, so too is the harmony.

4. Therefore if the body is destroyed, so too must be the soul/mind.

Proves the impossibility of the immortality of the soul?

Proves it is irrational to be a theist re the soul?

Simmias on Mind & Body

Materialism: ‘Soul’ = mental = processes of

thought, perception depends on physical caused/explained by

events in the body (i.e. brain, nervous system)

= off-shoot (epiphenomenon)

of physical

Problems: “soul” Mental different

from physical ‘Soul’ seems

independent of body in some ways

Seems = center & owner of thought and action

Cebes’ Weaver Argument

1. Y can survive X, but this does not imply Y lives forever, e.g. the weaver can survive his cloak, but this does not imply he lives forever.

2. Soul/mind is to the body as a weaver is to his cloak, i.e. he is separate from it, and can ‘outlive’ his body, perhaps through many reincarnations.

3. But at the end, the soul/mind, just like the weaver, must also perish.

Suggests a way soul as a life-principle at work in living things. But if true, ‘soul’ and ‘body’ are functionally interdependent.

Interlude: Misology,Misanthropy

Simmias and Cebes evoke the Minotaur = Fear of Death

Socrates must rally his friends to ‘stand firm in the argument’

Danger = power of misology, “philosophical cynicism”

Analogy to misanthropy, “interpersonal cynicism”

Socrates vs. Simmias

Arguments may be driven by the desire to win, we should question them

3 arguments: conflict between1. 91c-92d: Harmony and Recollection

Argument 2. 92e-94b: Harmony and idea of good

and wicked people3. 92e-94b: Harmony and conflict idea

of self-rule

3rd theory of mind/body

‘Soul’ = person Owner of thought,

agency Depends on

physical Two-in-one:

‘person’ = embodied soul with both mental and physical properties

Problems Body not = ‘cause’

of person & their actions, but person can’t act without it

Still puzzling how ‘mind’ brings about actions in world

Is ‘world’ also dualistic in this way?