Notes and Comments on Phaedo -- 22

7 August 2023

Notes and Comments on Phaedo – 22

Continuing with my series on Phaedo using the Harold North Fowler translation from the Loeb Classical Library:

“’But how about Cebes?’ said Socrates.  “For Cebes must be convinced, too.’

“’He is fully convinced, I think,’ said Simmias; ‘and yet he is the most obstinately incredulous of mortals.  Still, I believe he is quite convinced of this, that our soul existed before we were born.  However, that it will still exist after we die does not seem even to me to have been proved, Socrates, but the common fear, which Cebes mentioned just now, that when a man dies the soul is dispersed and this is the end of his existence, still remains.  For assuming that the soul comes into being and is brought together from some source or other and exists before it enters into a human body, what prevents it, after it has entered into and left that body, from coming to an end and being destroyed itself?’

“’You are right Simmias,’ said Cebes.  “’It seems to me that we have proved only half of what is required, namely, that our soul existed before our birth.  But we must also show that it exists after we are dead as well as before our birth, if the proof is to be perfect.’

“’It has been shown, Simmias and Cebes, already,’ said Socrates, ‘if you will combine this conclusion with the one we reached before, that every living being is born from the dead.  For if the soul exists before birth, and, when it comes into life and is born, cannot be born from anything else than death and a state of death, must it not also exist after dying, since it must be born again?  So the proof you call for has already been given.  However, I think you and Simmias would like to carry on this discussion still further.  You have the childish fear that when the soul goes out from the body the wind will really blow it away and scatter it, especially if a man happens to die in a high wind and not in calm weather.’

“And Cebes laughed and said, ‘Assume that we have that fear, Socrates, and try to convince us; or rather, do not assume that we are afraid, but perhaps there is a child within us, who has such fears.  Let us try to persuade him and not to fear death as if it were a hobgoblin.’

“’Ah,’ said Socrates, ‘you must sing charms to him every day until you charm away his fear.’

“’Where then, Socrates,’ said he, ‘shall we find a good singer of such charms, since you are leaving us?’

“’Hellas, Cebes,’ he replies, ‘is a large country, in which there are many good men, and there are many foreign peoples also.  You ought to search through all of them in quest of such a charmer, sparing neither money nor toil, for there is no greater need for which you could spend your money.  And you must seek among yourselves, too, for perhaps you would hardly find others better able to do this than you.’

“’That,’ said Cebes, ‘shall be done.  But let us return to the point where we left off, if you are willing.’

“’Oh, I am willing, of course.’

“’Good,’ said he.”

1.  I see this passage as a kind of humorous interlude.  Cebes is mocked in a friendly manner by Simmias for being ‘obstinately incredulous.’  And Socrates points out that Cebes’s objection has already been answered; but then accepts that both of them would like to continue the discussion.  Partly, I think, Cebes and Simmias want to continue the discussion because it is going well and the spirit of philosophical friendship is evident, and partly I think there may be the feeling on their part that if the discussion continues then they won’t have to move on to Socrates’s execution.

2.  I think the objection of Cebes, that the discussion has proved that the soul exists before birth, but that the soul continues after death has not been proved, means that Cebes is out of touch with the basic cyclic nature of the World Soul and the material realm which is an instantiation of cyclical time.  In a sense, Cebes has a modern, linear, sense of time and for this reason is unable to comprehend how previous arguments are sufficient to answer his objection.

3.  But Socrates is willing to continue even though he has gone over this before.  I see this as an example of the virtue of patience.  I am particularly attracted to teachers who have this virtue because I am a slow learner; I mean that I need to have multiple explanations of a new idea, or a new practice, in order to get a feel for it.  For this reason I empathize with Cebes and admire the willingness of Socrates to continue with the topic which will be done in the next section.