Phaedo by Plato :: Papers

Phaedo by PlatoThe main theme behind the Phaedo is Socrates readiness and willingness to die, because of his belief of immortality. Socrates believed that when his body ceased to exist anymore, that his soul would leave and join that of the forms, where he would be eternally. Socrates believed so strongly in this, that non only did he not fear his death, he welcomed it. He believed that only when the soul separated from the body, is a somebody able to be truly enlightened and gain all knowledge. This enlightenment has been Socrates life long goal of discovering the truth. Even at his hour of death, Socrates showed no hesitation. However, Socrates friends did not believe so strongly, and took some great convincing by Socrates, to allow his friends to be okay with his death. The two proofs that Socrates used to convince his friends are the Doctrine of Opposites and the unbiased and composite theory.The first proof, the Doctrine of Opposites, is the type of proof that uses a seq uence of factual statements the lead from to another to prove that unrivaled thing is the same as another thing. The Doctrine of Opposites uses simple references to allow the reader to easily comprehend and follow the steps of the logical process. For example, hot comes from cold. An object could not possibly be hot if it was never heated up from the state of being cold. The same holds true for the reverse of this analogy. If cold object must have at one point been cooled down from a state of being hot. Since hot and cold are opposites, this simple statement proves that things come from there opposite. Also by employ this example, Socrates is trying to imply the idea of eternal existence. He is saying that cold doesnt come from thin air. It had to have come from some previous existence in some other form, which in this case would be hot. Another example that he uses is the asleep and awake analogy. One would have to agree that a person could be only one or the other. If you are not sleeping, then you are awake and if you are not awake then you have to be asleep. This example further proves that you can only be one of something or the other, its opposite, but you must be one of them.