THE DEATH (SOUL) OF A PHILOSOPHER ( PLATO’S PHAEDO 59C-70) INTRODUCTION
The dialog begins with phaedo, cebes and simmias depicting on Socrates explaining on a reason why a true philosopher should not fear to die the main reason being if a person truly applies oneself in the right way to the love of knowledge as the pursuit of the reality they prepare themselves for the very act of dying since for them death is better than life .
In the dialog, Echecrates asks Phaedo to tell him about Socrates ' death, and we see Phaedo warmly welcomes the chance to remember his friend Socrates in the final hours of his life. Phaedo surprisingly attributes that it was an astonishing and shocking experience because he was witnessing the death of a dear friend, he added saying that despite that he had no pity because of the way in which Socrates bravely and happily faced his death without fear of the unknown. He also takes care to mention that Plato was not there due to illness and further explains the course of the day to Echecrates.
In the days prior to Socrates ' death, Phaedo and other friends frequently visited him in
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Additionally, since physical senses are inaccurate and deceiving, philosophical search for knowledge is more effective when the soul is "most by itself." this point holds more clearly in the objects of philosophical knowledge that Plato later on in the dialogue (103e) refers to as “Forms.” They are mentioned Here maybe for the first time in Plato 's discussion: the Just itself, the Beautiful and the Good; Bigness, Health, and Strength; and “in a word, the reality of all other things, that which each of them essentially is” (65d). They are better approaching not only in a mental sense but with pure thoughts. These parties have been re-disputed by Simmias and Cebes and are discussed more deeply