The True Meaning Of The Soul In Phaedo By Plato

In the passage on page 121 of Plato’s book “Phaedo”, Socrates begins explaining to Cebes the struggle that the soul sometimes has to overcome. He starts by referencing the fact that the soul is, “imprisoned in and clinging to the body”(121: 82e), in this Socrates is referring to the soul as a human being and the true form of being. He uses this quote because he is saying that the average person in society is more worried about materialistic things and their desires more than the ideas that matter, such as the power of intellectual knowledge. He infers that when a human begins to think in a materialistic way, it traps his or her soul and does not allow them to live freely and is the leading cause in one's imprisonment. Socrates instead suggest that if they were to not alienate themselves from “The lovers of learning”(121: 82e), they would be able to see the true meaning of the soul as philosophers do.

Then Socrates suggest that if someone is in this state they should look towards philosophy for the answers because, “[it] bids the soul to gather itself together by itself, to trust only itself, and whatever reality, existing by itself, the soul by itself understand”(121: 83b), because philosophy is trying to separate the soul from the body, Socrates sees this as the best way to free someones soul if it feels as if it is imprisoned in its own body. Socrates argues the if one wants to be a philosopher then, one must “not be opposed and so keeps away from pleasures and desires and pains as far as he can”(121: 83c), here socrates is stating that he understands that desires and pleasures are needed in some capacity, but that philosophers moderate the amount that they use, unlike normal humans who act on all the desires their soul