Episode 73, Plato’s Phaedo: The Death of Socrates (Part III - In Defence of Immortality)
The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast
Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane
4.8 • 604 Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2020
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Let me tell you about the day Socrates drank the poison. You must be aware of his trial and apology? The Athenians have not stopped talking about it since Meletus and the others condemned him. Do not worry, he did not die in fear and nor is he truly gone. He argued his case much like he always had. He died the philosopher’s death, having practiced for it his entire life.
What does this mean? Socrates spoke persuasively about matters concerning the immortality of the soul. He said the life of a true philosopher helps the prisoner, chained hand and foot in their body, to escape from the dark cave of ignorance and into the light of wisdom. This, in turn, provides the soul with the perfect means to release itself from the body after death.
When the hour arrived, and Socrates finally took the hemlock, he did not flinch. Those of us who bore witness could not help but shed a tear – we were not as brave as the wise man who lay before us. What? You would like to hear more? Are you not convinced of the immortality that Socrates proposed? Come, take a seat, I will tell you the full story…
Contents
Part I. The Soul and Body
Part II. Arguments for the Soul’s Immortality
Part III. In Defence of Immortality
Part IV. The Death of Socrates, Further Analysis and Discussion
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Pan Psygast |
| 0:04.0 | Part three, a defence of immortality. |
| 0:20.0 | Welcome back to this week's installment of the Fido. |
| 0:24.9 | So this week, we're going to look at the two objections to Socrates's thesis that the soul's immortal. |
| 0:31.6 | And this week's reading of the Fido and our analysis of it. |
| 0:34.1 | Last week, we obviously looked at the three arguments for the soul in its immortality and before |
| 0:38.6 | that we looked at the nature of the soul in relation to the body before we jump into the text |
| 0:43.7 | we should say maybe what we're going to be talking about why it's exciting for me first of all |
| 0:48.1 | this is the most interesting terms of what it is in the light of like 21st century philosophy of |
| 0:54.0 | mind so we get kind of a little bit of a hard problem of consciousness is consciousness of what it is in the light of like 21st century philosophy of mind, |
| 0:54.3 | so we get kind of a little bit of a hard problem of consciousness. |
| 0:57.6 | Is consciousness separate from the body, or is it just the brain configured in a certain way? |
| 1:02.2 | And those of who enjoyed episodes with Dan Dennett and Philip Goff and Galen Straussen, |
| 1:07.7 | you'll feel right at home in this installment of the podcast. |
| 1:12.6 | And guys, what grabs your attention about this section of the Fido? |
| 1:15.6 | And what are you excited to talk about? |
| 1:17.8 | I might very well have my favorite bit of the entire text, which is, like, |
| 1:22.7 | Simmius gives his presumably very airtight criticism and then immediately folds. |
| 1:29.8 | He doesn't even try to defend it. |
| 1:32.4 | And it's just like, it's just when you're reading the text and you just think, oh, come on. |
| 1:37.4 | Simius. |
| 1:38.4 | Yeah, I remember when I first read it. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.