Analysis Of Socrates The Phaedo

The Phaedo is a dialogue between Socrates and his friends on the days of his eminent execution. Given the circumstances, the conversation naturally turns to questions concerning death and soul of the after-life. The friends of Socrates is sad at his impending death, but Socrates is cheerful of death and he promises to tell them why. “I desire to prove to you that a real philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and after death he may hope to obtain the greatest good in the other world”. Socrates explains that man can only attain wisdom after death for it is only then that the mind is liberated from the distractions of the body. Despite Socrates’s confidence, some of his friends are not convinced that the soul will
While waiting for his tragic death, Socrates goes into a conversation with Crito where he develops four main reasons why he should stay in Athens. First of all, the crowd can do neither good nor harm and that the multitude’s actions are utterly random and irrational. The judgement of the multitude constantly changes with remarkable similarity. It is also impossible to determine why their judgement changes. “The crowd will love someone for a certain quality, and hate another for the same exact quality. They will love one person today and hate the same person tomorrow”. I believe this is the reason why Socrates hated democracy, for he believed that the crowd is very gullible, and lacks the foundation to use reason as their means to find the truth. The second idea examined in the dialogue is that men should only regard the opinions of wise men. Socrates uses an analogy of a gymnast and his trainer. The gymnast should only regard the praise, criticism and teachings of his trainer, and should disregard everyone else’s opinion. If he does not regard his trainer’s wisdom, then he will likely suffer harm and not improve his gymnastic abilities to the utmost. Furthermore, if he regards the opinion of the crowd that is ignorant of the proper techniques and exercises required to improve in gymnastics, then he will again suffer harm and fall short of the greatness of which he is capable of. This analogy holds true in all other endeavors. Any man who wants to improve his soul should only regard the opinion of one who knows how to improve the soul. The third idea presented in the dialogue was never to do harm or revenge, because warding off evil by evil deeds is injustice, and to do injustice is always unjust regardless of the situation. In the apology, Socrates recalls the story of how Achilles avenged his cousin’s death by slaying hector. He extols Achilles’s virtue and his desire to die