Phaedo
Plato, Gallop (David)
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Cover Blurb

  1. ‘Were you there with Socrates yourself, Phaedo, on the day that he drank the poison in the prison, or did you hear of it from someone else?’
  2. The Phaedo is acknowledged to be one of Plato's greatest masterpieces, showing him both as a philosopher and as a dramatist at the height of his powers. For its moving account of the execution of Socrates, the Phaedo ranks among the supreme literary achievements of antiquity. It is also a seminal document for many ideas deeply ingrained in Western culture, and provides one of the best introductions to Plato's thought.
  3. This new edition is a revised version of the Clarendon Press translation, and is eminently suitable for readers new to Plato.
Synopsis of the Phaedo
  1. 57a-59c: Prologue.
  2. 59c-69e: Opening Conversation.
    … 59c-63e: May the philosopher take his own life?
    … 63e-69e: Why the philosopher should welcome death.
  3. 69e-107b: The Case for Immortality.
    … 69e-72e: Argument from cyclical processes.
    … 72e-78b: Argument from ‘recollection' of forms.
    … 78b-84b: Argument from affinity of soul to forms.
  4. 84c-86e: Objection of Simmias: attunement theory of the soul.
  5. 86e-88b: Objection of Cebes.
    88c-89b: First interlude.
  6. 89b-91c: Warning against 'misology'.
  7. 91c-95a: Replies to Simmias.
    … 91c-92e: Attunement theory is inconsistent with the theory of ‘recollection'.
    … 93a-94b: Attunement theory makes all souls equally good.
    … 94b-95a: Attunement theory is inconsistent with the soul's rule of the body.
  8. 95a-102a: Reply to Cebes: Socrates' intellectual life story.
    102a: Second interlude.
  9. 102a-107b: Final argument for immortality.
  10. 107c-115a: Myth of the Afterlife1.
  11. 115b-118a: Death of Socrates.
Book Comment

Oxford World Classics, OUP; 1993 (1999 Reprint). Paperback.


"Gallop (David) - Phaedo - Introduction"

Source: Plato, Gallop - Phaedo


"Plato, Gallop (David) - Phaedo"

Source: Plato, Gallop - Phaedo


Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
  1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026
  2. Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)


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