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On the last day of his life, Socrates sits in prison with his friends and talks calmly about whether the soul survives death. He offers one argument after…
On the last day of his life, Socrates sits in prison with his friends and talks calmly about whether the soul survives death. He offers one argument after another, from opposites, from recollection, from the soul's likeness to unchanging things, while his friends raise objections he takes seriously. At sunset he drinks the hemlock, and the account of his death is among the most moving pages in ancient literature.
Context and significance
Narrated by Phaedo, who was in the cell, the dialogue completes the story begun in the Apology and Crito. It shaped centuries of thinking about the soul, in the Islamic world as well as in Europe, and it is a fine introduction to Plato's theory of Forms.
About the author
Plato (c. 428–348 BC) was born into an aristocratic family in Athens and became the devoted student of Socrates. After his teacher's trial and execution in 399 BC, he travelled, returned to Athens and founded the Academy, a school that lasted for centuries and counted Aristotle among its students.
Almost all his writings are dialogues in which Socrates questions his fellow citizens about justice, love, knowledge and the soul, from the Apology to the Symposium and the Republic. Known to Arab philosophers as Aflatun, he was read closely by al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd, and Western philosophy has been called a series of footnotes to him.