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(based on a revision of David Gallop’s analysis in his translation of the Phaedo)
- Prologue (57a1-59c7)
- Socrates in prison (59c8-118a17)
2.1. Opening conversation (59c8-63e7)
2.2. Socrates’s defense of his life of philosophy (63e8-69e5)
2.3. Arguments for the immortality of the soul (69e6-107b10)
2.3.1. The Cyclical Argument (69e6-72e1), with addendum
2.3.2. The Recollection Argument (72e1-78b3)
2.3.2.1. Before we were born (72e1-77a3
2.3.2.2. After we have died? (77a3-78b3)
2.3.3. The Affinity Argument (78b4-84b) (Is the soul “scattered”?)
2.3.3.1. Affinity (78b4-82d)
2.3.3.2. The Renunciation of Body by Lovers of Learning (82d-84c)
2.3.4. Objections by Simmias and Cebes (84c1-88b8)
2.3.4.1. Simmias: Harmony Objection (84c-88b)
2.3.4.1.1. Introduction to Doubts (88b-85e)
2.3.4.1.2. Soul as Mixture and Harmony (85e-86c)
2.3.4.2. Cebes : The Weaver and the Cloak (87a-88b)
2.3.5. Interlude: Conversation of Echecrates & Phaedo n the Importance of the Objections (88c-89c)
2.3.6: Responses to Simmias and Cebes (89d-102a)
2.3.6.1. Preparations for the response, Socrates on Misanthropy and Misology (89d-91c)
2.3.6.2. Restatement of the Objections (91c-d)
2.3.6.3. Socrates’s reply to Simmas (91e-95a3): Analyzing the Meaning of Harmony
2.3.6.4. Socrates’s reply to Cebes (95a4-102a9)
2.3.6.4.1. Restatement (95b-96a)
2.3.6.4.2. Socrates’s story (96a-102a)
2.3.6.4.2.1. First voyage in quest of the αἰτια (aitia: reason, cause) (96a-99d)
2.3.6.4.2.1.1. Puzzles
2.3.6.4..2.1.1.1 generation and corruption / growth
2.3.6.4..2.1.1.2 larger / smaller
2.3.6.4..2.1.1.3 numbers
2.3.6.4.2.1.2. Anaxagoras and teleology: unity of formal and final causes
2.3.6.4.2.2. Second voyage in quest of the αἰτια (aitia: reason, cause) (99d-102a)
2.3.6.4..2.2.1. fear that the soul will be blinded
2.3.6.4..2.2.2. the method of hypothesis: the Beautiful, etc. (100a)
2.3.6.4..2.2.2.1. the safer answer: the beautiful by Beauty (participation) (100e)
2.3.6.4.2.2.2.2. larger by largeness (100e -101a)
2.3.6.4.2.2.2.3. numbers (101b)
2.3.7. Final argument (102a10-107b10) [the clever answer 105c]
2.3.7.1. Principles
2.3.7.1.1. Opposites do not enter one another but go away or are destroyed when they approach
2.3.7.1.2. Numbers and their attributes of Odd and Even
Applications: snow & fire, hot & cold
numbers
“A more sophisticated answer”
2.3.7.3. Soul always brings with it life. Death is opposite to life. Soul will not admit opposite of what it brings, etc. (Have you ever seen a dead human being?). The soul is deathless.
“It is right to think then, gentlemen, that if the soul is immortal, it requires our care not only for the time we call our life, but for the sake of all time, and that one is in terrible danger if one does not give it that care. If death were escape from everything, it would be a great boon to the wicked to get rid of the body and of their wickedness together with their soul. But now that the soul appears to be immortal, there is no escape from evil or salvation for it except by becoming as good and wise as possible, for the soul goes to the underworld possessing nothing but its education and upbringing, which are said to bring the greatest benefit or harm to the dead right at the beginning of the journey yonder.” (107c)
2.4. Myth (197c1-115a8)
2.5. Socrates’s Death (115b1-118a17)