Notes and Comments on Phaedo -- 12

1 July 2023

Notes and Comments on Phaedo – 12

Continuing with my series on Phaedo; I am using the Harold North Fowler translation published by the Loeb Classical Library:

“’Then,’ said Socrates, ‘if this is true, my friend, I have great hopes that when I reach the place to which I am going, I shall there, if anywhere, attain fully to that which has been my chief object in any past life, so that the journey which is now imposed upon me is begun with good hope; and the like hope exists for every man who thinks that his mind has been purified and made ready.’

“’Certainly, ‘ said Simmias.

“’And does not the purification consist in this which has been mentioned long ago in our discourse, in separating, so far as possible, the soul from the body and teaching the soul the habit of collecting and bringing itself together from all parts of the body, and living, so far as it can, both now and hereafter, alone by itself, freed from the body as from fetters?’

“’Certainly,’ said he.

“’Well, then, this is what we call death, is it not, a release and separation from the body?’

“’Exactly so,’ said he.

“’But, as we hold, the true philosophers and they alone are always most eager to release the soul, and just this – the release and separation of the soul from the body – is their study, is it not?’

“’Obviously.’

“’Then, as I said in the beginning, it would be absurd if a man who had been all his life fitting himself to live as nearly in a state of death as he could, should then be disturbed when death came to him.  Would it not be absurd?’

“’Of course.’

“’In fact, then, Simmias,’ said he, ‘the true philosophers practice dying, and death is less terrible to them than to any other men.  Consider it in this way.  They are in every way hostile to the body and they desire to have the soul apart by itself alone.  Would it not be very foolish if they should be frightened and troubled when this very thing happens, and if they should not be glad to go to the place where there is hope of attaining what they longed for all through life – and they longed for wisdom – and of escaping from the companionship of that which they hated?  When human loves or wives or sons have died, many men have willingly gone to the other world led by the hope of seeing there those whom they longed for, and of being with them; and shall he who is really in love with wisdom and has a firm belief that he can find it nowhere else than in the other world grieve when he dies and not be glad to go there?  We cannot think that, my friend, if he is really a philosopher; for he will confidently believe that he will find pure wisdom nowhere else than in the other world.  And if this is so, would it not be very foolish for such a man to fear death?’

“’Very foolish, certainly,’ said he.

“’Then is it not,’ said Socrates, ‘a sufficient indication, when you see a man troubled because he is going to die, that he was not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body?  And this same man is also a lover of money and of honour, one or both.’

“’Certainly,’ said he, ‘it is as you say.’”

(Ibid, Fowler, pages 233—237)

 

1.  It is interesting to me that at times Socrates uses expressions like ‘I have great hopes’ regarding his afterlife experience and destiny.  These are somewhat tentative.  My interpretation of this is that Socrates might not know the exact details of what he will experience in the afterlife.  Perhaps he has ‘great hopes’ that he will meet specific people or have specific experiences.  These hopes may be informed by Orphic and other mystery, or esoteric, teachings.  I don’t interpret this kind of statement as skepticism, which, I believe, is how modernist would almost automatically interpret it.  To use an analogy, I might have great hopes about a concert I am going to attend, because I have heard so much about the musician from others, even if I don’t know the specific music that is going to be played.  In a similar way, I see Socrates as having high hopes even if the exact happenings, the beings he will meet, and other experiences, may be a bit obscure.

2.  Socrates returns to the theme of purification as the separation of the soul from the body.  Socrates notes that the philosopher should develop the ‘habit’ of this separation.  I think that refers to ascetic practices and the cultivation of the ascetic ideal.  Ascesis, meaning ascetic practices, resemble the kinds of practices that an athlete engages in in order to become a skilled sportsman.  Or the kinds of studies, such as scales, a musician engages in so that he can become a great performer.  These kinds of exercises become habits, meaning something one does as a matter of course because doing them has become internalized.

3.  The quote concludes with the observation makes that Socrates considers someone who is ‘troubled’ by his approaching death to not be a philosopher.  I understand what Socrates means, but I think it depends on what ‘troubled’ signifies.  I have met people who are untroubled by their approaching death, but are significantly troubled by the difficulties that the disintegration of the body might bring.  The aches and pains, the possible deliriums, can, and often are, a cause for anxiety.  This is partly the result of the technological life extension currently used in modern medicine, but I suspect it has always been a difficulty. 

4.  But fear of death itself, and as such, indicates, according to Socrates, that the person a lover of the body, of money, and of honor; in other words, they are materialists.  The agitation of such a person is that as death approaches things like money, worldly honor and praise, and the body slip away.  In contrast, as death approaches, wisdom becomes more vivid and grows in depth and breadth.  The expectation is that such wisdom will deepen even further as one steps into realms that are closer to the Good and the One.