interesting take on the relationship between the body and the soul; the body nails the soul, it is a disease which is a hindrance for the attainment of that which is pure and eternal !! (the symbolic meaning of Socrate’s last sentence still puzzles me though; he infers that life is a disease whilst having preached an optimistic attitude towards it his whole life)

What the hell happened here? Socrates went from talking about if the soul continues to exist after the body dies to his own version of Journey to the Center of the Earth.

And what shitty friends, I’m sure Socrates would have much preferred to have that young lad he was eyeing at the gym spend time with him on his last day of life rather than talking about fucking odd and even numbers.

Socrates' last discussion before being executed as recorded by Plato from the perspective of Socrates' former students, Phaedo...
The discussion expounds on the afterlife and the soul's immortality to which he presents four arguments:
1. Argument from Opposites - i.e. a perpetual cycle of life and death, when we die we do not stay dead, but come back to life after a time.
2. Theory of Recollection - i.e. learning is actually recollecting what is already known
3. Argument from Affinity - i.e. there is a distinction between things which are immaterial, invisible, and immortal such as the soul, and things which are material, visible, and perishable such as the body. Therefore the soul is immortal and survives death.
4. Form of Life - i.e. all things possess qualities which prove that they are part of some unchanging and invisible form. This Form of Life is a property of the soul, therefore the soul is anything but alive.

Μονίμως ξεχνιέμαι και δεν ανεβάζω τα βιβλία στο goodreads όταν τα τελειώνω ή δεν ανεβάζω τις κριτικές στην ώρα μου.
Τέλος πάντων.

Lovely read.
Philosophical Drama, story of Socrates before his death.
So descriptively he had explained the virtue of Death with several enumerations.
I guess, each line one can takes as a quote of this book.
So amazing book and Highly recommended to all readers.

Some of Finest Quotes are
"I am afraid that other people do not realize that the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death." (Socrates)
"For whenever it attempts to examine anything with the body, it is clearly deceived by it." (Socrates)
"when men are interrogated in the right manner, they always give the right answer of their own accord, and they could not do this if they did not possess the knowledge and the right explanation inside them." (Cebes)
"These equal things and the Equal itself are therefore not the same?" (Socrates)
"Then before we began to see or hear or otherwise perceive, we must have possessed knowledge of the Equal itself if we were about to refer our sense perceptions of equal objects to it, and realized that all of them were eager to be like it, but were inferior." (Socrates)
"If then one wished to know the cause of each thing, why it comes to be or perishes or exists, one had to find what was the best way for it to be or to be acted upon, or to act." (Socrates)

This book consists of a long conversation between the soon-to-be-executed Socrates and some of his erudite friends. It is quite a beautiful meditation on the nature of death, and the immortality of the soul.

I'll admit it presents traditional presuppositions in a clear, direct way. And it admits itself based on pure speculation: "Of course no reasonable person ought to insist that the facts are exactly as I have described them, but that either this or something very like it is a true account of our souls and their future habitation" (114d).

But then we get the wholesale assumptions about life's proper order:

"When soul and body are both in the same place, nature teaches the one to serve and be subject, the other to rule and govern. In this relation, which do you think resembles the divine and which the mortal part? Don't you think that it is the nature of the divine to rule and direct, and that of the mortal to be subject and serve?" (80a)

Il n'était pas inutile de relire ce dialogue, habituellement présenté avec "l'Apologie de Socrate" et "Criton". Ce dialogue est l'un des plus célèbre du fameux philosophe athénien. Il relate la mort de Socrate, condamné à boire la ciguë par un jugement l'ayant accusé d'impiété et de corruption de la jeunesse. Profitant d'un sursis dû à un pèlerinage commémorant l'époque de Thésée, ses amis le retrouvent dans sa prison, et profitent des derniers instants en sa compagnie pour philosopher sur la mort. Si Platon évoque le thème de l'immortalité de l'âme, et de son jugement après la mort en fonction de la moralité des actes accompli lors de la vie (en particulier dans la lettre VII), il n'est nulle part aussi complet qu'en ce dialogue sur le sujet. Voilà donc où ce mythe égyptien devient fameux. Sans doute les gentils furent préparés par ce texte à l'adoption de la chrétienté, sans doute la chrétienté a t elle été aussi inspirée par ces mythes. Même en restant sceptique aux idées avancées par Socrate, tout à fait à rebours de l'empirisme, il est impossible de rester insensible à la beauté du texte, et à la finesse, à l'honnêteté et au courage de cet homme remarquable, qui meure comme il a vécu.

Το έργο του Πλάτωνα είναι μια πραγματεία "Περί ψυχής". Το θεωρώ ανώτερο του αντίστοιχου του Αριστοτέλη, αν και δηλώνω προτίμηση στον δεύτερο. Δεν παύει βέβαια να πραγματεύεται ένα θέμα μακράν ξεπερασμένο, για μένα, για το τι συμβαίνει στην ψυχή μετά το θάνατο ή πριν την γέννηση. Παρ' όλα αυτά, όπως όλοι οι πλατωνικοί διάλογοι, πολύ ευχάριστος.

This dialogue stands at removes from Socrates and from Plato. The tale of Socrates' approach to death is told by his friends and not by Socrates himself. Plato (within the dialogue) was not present at Socrates' death. He merely records what others recount to him. The dialogue is recorded almost as though it were a court record.

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The dialogue honors Socrates by describing his philosophy in the midst of a philosophical flowering in Athens and its environs.

Description of Theory of Ideas:
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/ph...
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Rhetorical Modes.
In Classical Rhetoric, three (3) modes of speech were used: Political
Legal, Ceremonial. Plato used the best-fitting mode: Legal. At times, the dialogue sounds like a deposition and other times like an expert providing professional information. Even the propaganda and apology are written in (rather) legal mode.

Propaganda.
All speech acts are arguments. Here Plato writes a dialogue that has subtext (sometimes not so subtext) that indicates the incorrect manner of the Athens city-state to have sentenced Socrates to death. The death of Socrates was delayed so that it would not dishonor a Apolloian ceremony. Socrates' friends from Athens and its environs are worried that they will not be able to remember all the lessons Socrates provided. Athens makes itself less when it sentences Socrates to death.

Apology.
All explanations are apologetic in nature. Socrates tells of his Theory of Ideas, comparing it with others' theories, including that of the Pythagoreans, telling if the superiority of his own Theory of Ideas. Plato's creation of a dialogue explains/presents an apology of Socrates' philosophical life. Overall we read a well-argued explanation of Socrates' philosophy.

Really didn’t think there could be a non-esoteric and rather a purely logical way of arguing for an immortal soul! What a wild read. I did often find it difficult to follow the arguments though, so I’d recommend reading the dialogues on a focused, well-rested and sober day, phone preferably in a different room and would also suggest to read it in one go rather than to break it up into days or weeks lest it will get too confusing (and therefore not enjoyable and/or enlightening). I did manage to do it that way 80% of the time, and the 20% that I didn’t, I was awfully annoyed with myself — plus, there’s now a solid 20% of the text I should probably read again.
An incredible text for intellectual hygiene!

Phaedo is one the Platonic dialogues that must have given a great deal of comfort to the Christian Apologists of Late Antiquity. In it Plato argues for the existence of a human soul and an immortality. In the after-life, those of who have lived justly will be allowed to dwell in a comfortable place with other "just" souls (who are more frequently referred to as philosophers.) There will be a kind of purgatory for those who committed minor sins and can be redeemed as well as a Hell for the unredeemable. Phaedo is a work that supports thesis that reason produces a vision of man's conditions that is consistent with Christianity. Philosophy missed only some minor points which were completely by Christ's divine revelation.

In the twenty-first century it is still the Christian reader who will most enjoy Phaedo. Atheists will cringe and try to acknowledge Plato's skill without agreeing with any of his conclusions.

Phaedo also contains a discussion of ghosts that will please neither Orthodox Christians nor atheists. Plato appears to believe in ghosts and proposes that some sinners have souls that they are so strong that they are able to stay in the physical world to which they are profoundly attached if they feel that they have unfinished business to resolve. The souls of the just never stay. Like Socrates they will serenely leave our world for the better one that awaits them. This is a myth that remains in the twenty-first century as strong as it ever was. Two thousand years of Christianity have still not killed it off.

In terms of the sequence of events Phaedo is the last of the four dialogues that Plato wrote about the trial and death of Socrates. The other three being Euthyphro, the Apology, and Crito. Euthyprho and Crito are quite short and do not stand up very well on their own. Phaedo and the Apology which are both much longer can be read on their own. All four benefit tremendously from being read together. The idea of group the four as a set however appears to be an idea of either the nineteenth or twentieth century. Plato wrote them at different stages in his career and does not seem to have regarded them as a set.