3 Plato 1 · On Death. Handed down at the Academy, from his Phaedo
From the Phaedo: the argument in the cell on the day Socrates was put to death, from morning until he drank. The whole of it labours to prove that the mind does not perish with the body. Plato records in the dialogue itself that he was not there that day, being ill. That is from his own hand, and the fifth chapter takes it for its title. For the man, see the Gospel of Plato. The Order does not take his proof of an undying mind. What it takes is the lyre of Simmias and the cloak of Cebes — what those two say is the Axiom of Dispersal. Plato did not strike out their objections, and the Order 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. (cf. The Highest Covenant 2.1)
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.