PLATO’S PHAEDO         REVIEW

PLATO’S PHAEDO         REVIEW

MIX AND MATCH, SHORT ANSWER, T/F, MULTIPLE CHOICE

◾Phaedo, Simmias, Cebes, Theseus, Minotaur, Xanthippe, Crito, Echecrates, Hades, mystic, Isle of the Blessed, swans (of Apollo), Anaxagoras, Earth itself, Tartarus, prison guard, Appollodorus, Asclepius, Socrates, Pythagoreans, hemlock, eschatology/theory of “last things” e.g.. if there is an afterlife

Socratic music, doctrine of suicide, asceticism, Socratic hope, body = cause of wars, philosophy = practice of dying, catharsis/purification, Forms, soul (psyche), body (soma), virtue = wisdom, recollection, reincarnation, greatest evil (hedonism causes materialism); care for the soul, epiphenomenalism, misology, misanthropy, Socrates’ raft, 3 questions of Socrates’ youth, mathematics and the theory of causes, Anaxagoras' Mind and the theory of causes, reasons vs. conditions, 4 types of causes (material, efficient, formal, final); true Earth

CONCEPTS, SHORT ESSAYS

2 ways of understanding what Socrates argues for in the Phaedo (against atheism re: soul/irrationality of belief in immortality vs. for theism re soul/rationality of belief in it

concept of Form, using an example, e.g. Equal itself vs. equals

concept of soul, discussing contrast to body – notion of mental vs. physical properties, soul-substance vs. physical substance

3 theories of body/soul relation

2 ways of “dying”/purification

3 definitions of death

2 types of virtue (philosophical based on reason vs. conventional/based on honor/shame)

recollection (empirical vs. Platonic), 2 ways of acquiring ‘knowledge’ (empiricist vs. innatist), 2 aspects of genuine knowledge (nec, universal), 2 worlds

Explain basic argument of:

Cyclical argument (opposites from opps, etc.), critique?

Recollection arg (If have K not acquired in this life, then acquired prior, etc.)

 Imperfection argument

 Likeness/Affinite (Invisible/unchanging/etc. is indestructible, etc.).

Be able to explain:

Simmias’ Harmony argument--basic idea

Cebes’ Weaver argument--basic idea

Mythological vs. ethical interpretations of reincarnation

4 types of ‘causes’/understanding in Socrates’ autobiography

Socrates’ theory of agent causation

Basic theory of forms (includes Forms, individuals, properties and language)

Advanced theory of forms (adds ‘natures’ and distinction between essential and non-essential properties)