3 Plato 1 · On Death. Handed down at the Academy, from his Phaedo
This book records the argument on the day Socrates died. In it Plato sets out to prove that the mind does not perish with the body. This scripture does not take that proof. What it takes is Simmias’ lyre and Cebes’ cloaks — what those two said is the axiom of dispersal. Plato did not strike out their objections, and this scripture does not strike out his proof.
1.1That day in the prison they took the irons off his legs.
1.2He sat up, rubbing his leg, and said: how strange.
1.3The pain leaves and the ease comes straight after it. The two seem tied to the ends of one rope.
1.4I write this down because it was the first thing he said that day, and the least like a last word.
1.5Later he said: a man trying to get something clear is often hindered by his body.
1.6The eyes do not see exactly. The ears do not hear exactly.
1.7Hungry, he wants food; cold, he wants warmth; afraid, he wants cover — and every one of them puts in a word while you are reckoning.
1.8You think you are thinking about the matter. You are thinking about the matter plus your stomach.
1.9So he said: a man who wants to know spends his life learning to set the body aside.
1.10And he said: is that not a rehearsal for dying?
1.11I set the sentence down as he said it. That is what he said that day.
1.12Later men took this to mean he believed body and mind can come apart and each go on existing.
1.13That day he did believe it. I will not change his words for him.
1.14But look closely at the reason he gave. The reason he gave was that the body muddies the looking.
1.15That reason stands without having to believe in the coming apart.