The Soul

Plato's Phaedo Sparknoted

The complete Phaedo

We touched on the idea of what the soul was today in class.  Plato's Phaedo is focused on this topic, and is an interesting and relatively simple work.  I suggest reading the Sparknoted Phaedo and then browsing through some of the original text.

This book is the last we hear from Socrates before he swallows the hemlock and dies.  Press Apple+F (or control+f, for Nick) and search for the word 'swan.'  In this paragraph and those which surround it Socrates says some wonderful and enlightening things about death.


Socrates and Plato, of course, weren't the only ones who believed in soul, and they probably knew a lot less about it than this man...