Notes and Comments on Phaedo -- 26

25 August 2023

Notes and Comments on Phaedo – 26

“When Socrates had said this there was silence for a long time, and Socrates himself was apparently absorbed in what had been said, as were also most of us.  But Simmias and Cebes conversed a little with each other; and Socrates saw them and said: ‘Do you think there is any incompleteness in what has been said?  There are still many subjects for doubt and many points open to attack, if anyone cares to discuss the matter thoroughly.  If you are considering anything else, I have nothing to say; but if you are in any difficulty about these matters, do not hesitate to speak and discuss them yourselves, if you think anything better could be said on the subject, and to take me along with you in the discussion, if you think you can get on better in my company.’

“And Simmias said, ‘Socrates, I will tell you the truth.  For some time each of us has been in doubt and has been egging the other on and urging him to ask a question, because we wish to hear your answer, but hesitate to trouble you, for fear that it may be disagreeable to you in your present misfortune.’

“And when he heard this, he laughed gently and said: ‘Ah, Simmias!  I should have hard work to persuade other people that I do not regard my present situation as a misfortune, when I cannot even make you believe it, but you are afraid I am more churlish now than I used to be.  And you seem to think I am inferior in prophetic power to the swans who sing at other times also, but when they feel that they are to die, sing most and best in their joy that they are to go to the god whose servants they are.  But men, because of their own fear of death, misrepresent the swans and say that they sing for sorrow, in mourning for their own death.  They do not consider that no bird sings when it is hungry or cold or has any other trouble; no, not even the nightingale or the swallow or the hoopoe which are said to sing in lamentation.  I do not believe they sing for grief, nor do the swans; but since they are Apollo’s birds, I believe they have prophetic vision, and because they have foreknowledge of the blessings in the other world they sing and rejoice on that day more than ever before.  And I think that I am myself a fellow-servant of the swans, and am consecrated to the same God and have received from our master a gift of prophecy no whit inferior to theirs, and that I go out from life with as little sorrow as they.  So far as this is concerned, then, speak and ask whatever question you please, so long as the eleven of the Athenians permit.’”

(Ibid, Fowler, pages 293-295, 84C-85B)

1.  This is a bridge passage, a pause before moving on to the next question.  But it also contains its own insights.

2.  “Socrates apparently was absorbed in what had been said.”  I think this describes Socrates falling into a contemplative trance.  Socrates was known to do this and it is depicted in some of the dialogues such as the Symposium.  Presumably his students would have seen this before and were not disturbed by it; this is expressed by Cebes and Simmias quietly talking to each other.

3.  Socrates asks Cebes and Simmias if there is any ‘incompleteness’ in what he has said.  That’s an interesting question.  Socrates doesn’t ask them if they understand what he has said, rather he asks if they think there is any incompleteness. 

I think Socrates is aware that the kinds of questions that are being discussed ultimately cannot be definitively answered through conceptual means.  It’s not that conceptual analysis is irrelevant, it can be very helpful.  If the analysis moves someone to experience the soul and to enter into contemplation of higher hypostases, it serves a profound purpose.  But if it remains at the level of conceptual analysis it has no definitive conclusion and can go on and on, without end.  This is because we live in the realm of constant change and differentiation; endless differentiation means that you can always slice and dice a concept or an argument further.  In that sense such arguments are always incomplete.  My feeling is that Socrates is gently suggesting that Cebes and Simmias might take a different tack in trying to understand the nature of soul and the process of rebirth.

4.  One of the impressive things about the classics of Platonism is how willing its exemplars are to unpack questions that their students have.  Phaedo is a superb example of this, as are many of the other dialogues.  There is also an episode from Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus where Porphyry reports that he had questions about the way Plotinus understood the nature of soul.  Plotinus, according to Porphyry, responded to Porphyry’s questions for three days!  At least one person in the audience was annoyed by this, which Porphyry faithfully reports.  (As an aside, I suspect that it is likely that some of that discussion, or echoes of that discussion, can be found in Ennead IV.)

Another example is The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius where the goddess Philosophy responds to all the questions of Boethius some of which require complex unpacking. 

In these examples I think that part of what the Platonist philosopher is doing is exhausting the questioning, skeptical mind so that the questioner can move forward.  If these questions remain unresponded to they act as a kind of block to the mind and that blockage acts as a barrier to entering into the actual practice of philosophy such as cultivating the virtues and ascetic purification.

5.  Socrates, with a bit of humor, compares himself to the swans who, according to Greek myth, sing when they are about to die.  The standard explanation for the swans’ singing is that they were in grief, but Socrates disagrees and says that the swans are rejoicing at their upcoming transition to the afterdeath realm.  Socrates then says that he knows this because he is ‘consecrated’ to the same God as the swans.  This would be Apollo.  Swans are sacred to Apollo and some of the biographies of Plato mention a close association that Plato has to Apollo and swans.

What I think Socrates is revealing here is that he has had a lifelong association with realities such as Apollo.  This is brought up as well in a dialogue like Phaedrus.  Socrates is letting Cebes and Simmias know that he has experience with transcendental realities, especially when Socrates falls into a trance like he does at the beginning of this part of the dialogue.