80. Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 3

Despite all of our technology, the Greeks were, in many ways, wiser than we are. We should not mistake knowledge for wisdom, for we have much more knowledge. They were wiser for many reasons, but especially because they recognized that human beings have immortal souls, something that we have lost today. This is the subject […]

79. Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 2

Many people think about the afterlife on a regular basis, while others avoid the subject. But coming to grips with our mortality is essential if we are going to have any sort of meaningful life. This is what Plato’s Phaedo is all about. After all, as the saying goes, if you don’t know how to die, […]

78. Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 1

Phaedo deals with the remaining hours of Socrates’ life. As such, there is much we can learn from it. The contrast above is stark and represents what Socrates accomplished in his death: turning the West from a violence-based culture to one of reason. On the right, we have the famous Greek hero Achilles, whose death […]

6. Socrates, Martyr for the Truth

The Presocratic Philosophers and Socrates Socrates died for his beliefs and this set him apart from all other Presocratic philosophers that preceded him. He changed the course of Greek philosophy1.