Universally hailed as one of the hellenistic world's most ingenious scholars, Plato never ceases to amaze through his timeless dialogues and thought-provoking conclusions to some of mankind's most perplexing questions. Of his works, "Phaedo" is one of the deeper writings, delving directly into the themes of death, the afterlife, and the nature of the soul, topics that are interposed with the narrative of Socrates' final dialogue before his drinking of the Hemlock.
One of the immediately apparent subjects in "Phaedo" is naturally death, as Plato describes Socrates' friends gathering for a final meeting with the beloved philosopher on the appointed day of his execution. Socrates quickly delves into the nature of death, concluding that death is not something to be feared, rather, it is something to be embraced as it represents the complete severing or freeing of the pure soul from the base and carnal nature of the body, exemplified when Socrates states, "For the body is a source of endless trouble to us by reason of the mere requirement of food; and also is liable to diseases which overtake and impede us in the search after truth: and by filling us as full of loves, and lusts, and fears, and fancies, and idols, and every sort of folly, prevents our ever having, or as people say, so much as a thought." Continuing this, Socrates states how, having lived a productive and good life, he can now look forward to a similar afterlife, saying, "Will you not allow that I have as much of the spirit of prophesy as the swans? For they, when they perceive that they must die, having sung all their life long, do sing more than ever, rejoicing in the thought that they are about to go away to the god whose ministers they are." This almost directly parallels the Christian beliefs on death, most notably seen in 2 Timothy 7, when Paul states, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing." Socrates' views on death are some of his most fascinating philosophical convictions, giving a hopeful ideal of the transition from this life to the next, a conviction that gains great strength when paired with the truth of God's word.
Socrates' belief in the release of death continues on to the topic of the soul, an area where Socrates' beliefs diverge into unusual territory. Immediately apparent is Socrates' belief in the rebirth of the soul after death, an action that Socrates labeled as undesirable due to the aforementioned impurity of the body. An example of this rebirth is seen when Socrates describes the effect of a pleasure-filled life, saying, "And this, my friend, may be conceived to be that heavy, weighty, and earthy element of sight by which such a soul is depressed and dragged down again into the visible world, because she is afraid of the invisible and of the world below, in the neighborhood of which, as they tell us, are seen ghostly apparitions of souls which have not departed pure, but are cloyed by sight and therefore visible." Socrates then goes on to describe these spirits' transition into organisms that reflect their worldly tendencies, stating,"I mean to say that men who have followed after gluttony, and wantonness, and drunkenness, and have had no thought of avoiding them would pass into asses and animals of that sort." Thus, Socrates' beliefs declare the soul's only hope of salvation to be found in a life of temperance, chastity, and self-control because, as he states, "Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the soul to the body, and engrosses her and makes her believe that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from agreeing with the body and having the same delights, she is obliged to have the same habits and ways, and is not likely ever to be pure at her departure to the world below, but is always saturated with the body; so that she soon sinks into another body, and there germinates and grows, and has therefore no part in the communion of the divine and pure and simple." This belief though greatly flawed, also shows reflections of Christianity as the sins and worldly pleasures of body do indeed drag the soul away from God, as stated in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death." Up until this point, a certain agreement can almost be reached between the two schools of thought, those being Socrates' and Bible's, however, Socrates puts his faith in the ability of man to save himself through reason and temperance, while God's Word states that only through Christ can a soul, not matter how righteous, attain salvation, as see in the second part of Romans 6:23,"But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Plato's "Phaedo" is rightly hailed as a masterpiece. Its insights into Socrates' theories and convictions regarding death and the afterlife are enamoring, especially given their parallels with Christianity. Though he often treads on unusual ground, Socrates' revolutionary opinions formed a foundation for free thought and an emphasis on reason in determining one's worldview. Truly, the "Phaedo's" place among the great philosophical works of Western Culture is well-deserved.
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