CHAPTER XXV.

PHÆDON.

The Phædon is affirmative and expository 377

Situation and circumstances assumed in the Phædon. Pathetic interest which they inspire _ib._

Simmias and Kebês, the two collocutors with Sokrates. Their feelings and those of Sokrates 378

Emphasis of Sokrates in insisting on freedom of debate, active exercise of reason, and independent judgment for each reasoner 379

Anxiety of Sokrates that his friends shall be on their guard against being influenced by his authority--that they shall follow only the convictions of their own reason 380

Remarkable manifestation of earnest interest for reasoned truth and the liberty of individual dissent 381

Phædon and Symposion--points of analogy and contrast 382

Phædon--compared with Republic and Timæus. No recognition of the triple or lower souls. Antithesis between soul and body 383

Different doctrines of Plato about the soul. Whether all the three souls are immortal, or the rational soul alone 385

The life and character of a philosopher is a constant struggle to emancipate his soul from his body. Death alone enables him to do this completely 386

Souls of the ordinary or unphilosophical men pass after death into the bodies of different animals. The philosopher alone is relieved from all communion with body 387

Special privilege claimed for philosophers in the Phædon apart from the virtuous men who are not philosophers 388

Simmias and Kebês do not admit readily the immortality of the soul, but are unwilling to trouble Sokrates by asking for proof. Unabated interest of Sokrates in rational debate 390

Simmias and Kebês believe fully in the pre-existence of the soul, but not in its post-existence. Doctrine--That the soul is a sort of harmony--refuted by Sokrates _ib._

Sokrates unfolds the intellectual changes or wanderings through which his mind had passed 391

First doctrine of Sokrates as to cause. Reasons why he rejected it _ib._

Second doctrine. Hopes raised by the treatise of Anaxagoras 393

Disappointment because Anaxagoras did not follow out the optimistic principle into detail. Distinction between causes efficient and causes co-efficient 394

Sokrates could neither trace out the optimistic principle for himself, nor find any teacher thereof. He renounced it, and embraced a third doctrine about cause 395

He now assumes the separate existence of ideas. These ideas are the causes why particular objects manifest certain attributes 396

Procedure of Sokrates if his hypothesis were impugned. He insists upon keeping apart the discussion of the hypothesis and the discussion of its consequences 397

Exposition of Sokrates welcomed by the hearers. Remarks upon it 398

The philosophical changes in Sokrates all turned upon different views as to a true cause _ib._.

Problems and difficulties of which Sokrates first sought solution 399

Expectations entertained by Sokrates from the treatise of Anaxagoras. His disappointment. His distinction between causes and co-efficients 400

Sokrates imputes to Anaxagoras the mistake of substituting physical agencies in place of mental. This is the same which Aristophanes and others imputed to Sokrates 401

The supposed theory of Anaxagoras cannot be carried out, either by Sokrates himself or any one else. Sokrates turns to general words, and adopts the theory of ideas 403

Vague and dissentient meanings attached to the word Cause. That is a cause, to each man, which gives satisfaction to his inquisitive feelings 404

Dissension and perplexity on the question.--What is a cause? revealed by the picture of Sokrates--no intuition to guide him 407

Different notions of Plato and Aristotle about causation, causes regular and irregular. Inductive theory of causation, elaborated in modern times _ib._

Last transition of the mind of Sokrates from things to words--to the adoption of the theory of ideas. Great multitude of ideas assumed, each fitting a certain number of particulars 410

Ultimate appeal to hypothesis of extreme generality 411

Plato's demonstration of the immortality of the soul rests upon the assumption of the Platonic ideas. Reasoning to prove this 412

The soul always brings life, and is essentially living. It cannot receive death: in other words, it is immortal 413

The proof of immortality includes pre-existence as well as post-existence--animals as well as man--also the metempsychosis or translation of the soul from one body to another 414

After finishing his proof that the soul is immortal, Sokrates enters into a description, what will become of it after the death of the body. He describes a [Greek: Nekui/a] 415

Sokrates expects that his soul is going to the islands of the blest. Reply to Kriton about burying his body 416

Preparations for administering the hemlock. Sympathy of the gaoler. Equanimity of Sokrates _ib._

Sokrates swallows the poison. Conversation with the gaoler 417

Ungovernable sorrow of the friends present. Self-command of Sokrates. Last words to Kriton, and death _ib._

Extreme pathos, and probable trustworthiness of these personal details 419

Contrast between the Platonic Apology and the Phædon _ib._.

Abundant dogmatic and poetical invention of the Phædon compared with the profession of ignorance which we read in the Apology 421

Total renunciation and discredit of the body in the Phædon. Different feeling about the body in other Platonic dialogues 422

Plato's argument does not prove the immortality of the soul. Even if it did prove that, yet the mode of pre-existence and the mode of post-existence, of the soul, would be quite undetermined 423

The philosopher will enjoy an existence of pure soul unattached to any body 425

Plato's demonstration of the immortality of the soul did not appear satisfactory to subsequent philosophers. The question remained debated and problematical 426

PLATO.