Impact of Death on Socratic Philosophy in Phaedo

Often, the setting of a philosophical argument has little to do with the argument itself. A conversation between friends, a speech in the marketplace, and a battle between two opposing viewpoints rely solely on the intelligence and creativity of the speakers. Philosophy is the science of the mind, and its topics are rarely influenced by the surroundings. However, Socrates’ imminent death frames the entire argument of the Phaedo. Death is the primary topic of the discourse. Also, the setting warps Socrates’ normal approach to philosophical discussion. Normally, he seeks to find the truth by disproving any possible theories until one remains. In this situation, however, he plans to disregard the outcome, and his reasons for this give great insights

While all his friends are upset and seek to free him from his capital punishment, Socrates looks forward to his death with hope and great expectation. His optimism confuses his friends, and they question him about it. Initially, his reason for this joy is that “a true lover of wisdom, who … knows that he will never find it to any extent except in Hades, be resentful of dying and not gladly undertake the journey thither?” (Phaedo, 68a). Socrates does not let the typical human fear of death twist his philosophical beliefs. He considers all possibilities, even those contrary to the beliefs of most people. Why does death have to be scary? Simply because it is unknown? If it is unknown, could it not be wonderful? So Socrates begins to examine what he does know about life after death, and soon finds that the philosopher is the most suited to joy in the face of death. First of all, the philosopher trains “himself in life to live in a state as close to death as possible,” so it would be ridiculous for him “then to resent it when it comes” (Phaedo, 67d). The world is full of deception and false perceptions, so to find the absolute truth that Socrates believes in, the philosopher must avoid letting greed, desire, or gluttony influence his thinking and reasoning. In death, the philosopher will no longer have to contend with these trials, whether or not

One would think that if Socrates could emphasize any one teaching, it is that philosophical argumentation is important, so it is fitting that he discusses it greatly in his last moments. Misology, like misanthropy, is a form of generalization, one of the worst logical fallacies. Socrates finds great fault with misology because it causes one to “believe themselves to have become very wise and that they alone have understood that there is no soundness or reliability in any object or in any argument” (Phaedo, 90c). If one knows that one cannot learn anything through reason, then one has learned everything one can learn from reason, and so the misologist has wisdom. Socrates spent a majority of his life discovering that no one has wisdom, so of course he sees a problem with this view. Like his other attacks on those who claimed to have wisdom, Socrates claims that the problem is that the misologist does, “not blame himself or his own lack of skill but, because of his distress, in the end gladly shifts the blame away from himself to the arguments” (Phaebo, 90d). So the misologists claim to have wisdom when they really just lack enough skill to truly understand the arguments. In fact, if one has become a misologist, argumentation has at least accomplished one of its goals, namely, making