The Nature of the Soul

The Phaedo concerns the last hours of Socrates. He has been sentenced to death by an Athenian court and must drink poison within hours of the conversation that takes place between him and Simmias and Cebes. Naturally, Socrates is interested in the question of what will happen after his death. Simmias, Cebes and Socrates's other friends are as well.

Socrates seems totally calm but he admits in the dialogue that it would be good for him to face death believing not only that his soul will survive death but that it will be well and happy. As a result, the Phaedo concerns what the soul is, whether it survives death and whether it is immortal.

Socrates defends an answer, characteristic of the author, Plato. He argues first that the truest knowledge is not of particular objects in the world known through the senses but...