ISBN: daba62f5c03ab839304b8f013078561c

MP3 Audio CD. Next to Republic and Symposium, Phaedo is among Plato?s best known dialogues. Like three other Platonic dialogues, Phaedo also uses as framework the final days of Socrates, … More...

MP3 Audio CD. Next to Republic and Symposium, Phaedo is among Plato?s best known dialogues. Like three other Platonic dialogues, Phaedo also uses as framework the final days of Socrates, one of the founders of Western philosophy who was also Plato?s teacher. Phaedo, like so many other works by Plato, discusses questions of life, death and afterlife. Socrates tells about his views on the last day before he is executed ? he was sentenced to death through poisoning by hemlock because he refused to believe in the Gods imposed on the people by the state of Athens. The discussion is related to Echecrates of Phlius by Phaedo, a former student of Socrates who spent the day with Socrates in his prison cell and was also present at the execution. The main idea that the dialogue revolves around is the immortality of the soul, and it also discusses the proposition that divinity and grace is not a privilege of gods, it can be attained by humans, too. Socrates presents four arguments in defense of his ideas: ? the Cyclical Argument, advocating the view that Forms are constant and eternal and as the soul is the agency that brings about life, it is also eternal; ? the Theory of Recollection, explaining that we all possess knowledge that was passed on to us in a non-empirical way before we were born, proving that the soul has existed eternally, before humans; ? the Affinity Argument, making the distinction between body and soul, defining the former as being visible and mortal, while the latter as invisible and immortal and arguing that our soul lives on even after our body dies. The final argument takes the notion of eternal forms one step further by defining Forms as the origin of everything we see in our world ? as the soul has a part in the world of Forms, it never dies., 0<

ISBN: daba62f5c03ab839304b8f013078561c

MP3 Audio CD. Phaedo INTRODUCTION. After an interval of some months or years, and at Phlius, a town of Peloponnesus, the tale of the last hours of Socrates is narrated to Echecrates and… More...

MP3 Audio CD. Phaedo INTRODUCTION. After an interval of some months or years, and at Phlius, a town of Peloponnesus, the tale of the last hours of Socrates is narrated to Echecrates and other Phliasians by Phaedo the 'beloved disciple.' The Dialogue necessarily takes the form of a narrative, because Socrates has to be described acting as well as speaking. The minutest particulars of the event are interesting to distant friends, and the narrator has an equal interest in them. During the voyage of the sacred ship to and from Delos, which has occupied thirty days, the execution of Socrates has been deferred. (Compare Xen. Mem.) The time has been passed by him in conversation with a select company of disciples. But now the holy season is over, and the disciples meet earlier than usual in order that they may converse with Socrates for the last time. Those who were present, and those who might have been expected to be present, are mentioned by name. There are Simmias and Cebes (Crito), two disciples of Philolaus whom Socrates 'by his enchantments has attracted from Thebes' (Mem.), Crito the aged friend, the attendant of the prison, who is as good as a friend--these take part in the conversation. There are present also, Hermogenes, from whom Xenophon derived his information about the trial of Socrates (Mem.), the 'madman' Apollodorus (Symp.), Euclid and Terpsion from Megara (compare Theaet.), Ctesippus, Antisthenes, Menexenus, and some other less-known members of the Socratic circle, all of whom are silent auditors. Aristippus, Cleombrotus, and Plato are noted as absent. Almost as soon as the friends of Socrates enter the prison Xanthippe and her children are sent home in the care of one of Crito's servants., 0<