Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Those who practise philosophy in the right way are practising nothing other than dying and being dead.”
Plato · Platonism · Ancient · c. 380 BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that philosophy trains a separation of the soul from bodily distraction, so the practice is a kind of dying before death. A competing reading hears a gloom about the body that the dialogue's arguments may not earn, and notes that 'being dead' is Socrates's provocative phrase for a life already turned toward forms. The sentence is Phaedo 64a, on the day of his death, and the rest of the dialogue defends the soul's survival. Even Simmias thinks the formula will get philosophers mocked.
Did Plato really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The English is close to Harold North Fowler's Loeb translation of Phaedo 64a. The dramatic date is Socrates's last day; Plato wrote the dialogue later.
Where it comes from
Phaedo 64a
Approximate date: c. 380 BCE.
How to use it
A person who clears an evening of noise in order to think a hard thing through is closer to the practice than a person collecting memento mori quotes. He is not recommending illness or a refusal of lunch. He is saying that chasing wisdom means loosening the grip of appetite and fear, and friends at a bedside can still matter; the Phaedo is full of them.
A mindset reading
The habit is to ask what the phrase is a practice of, rather than to hear a wish for extinction. Dying, in this mouth, means rehearsing a condition in which the soul is less dragged by the body. If that picture of the soul is one you reject, the sentence does not bind you, but you have located the disagreement.
Understand the philosophy
Socrates is answering what philosophers are doing when they despise ordinary ambitions. Practising dying means cultivating the soul's independence from bodily desire so that it can grasp stable objects of knowledge. The key term is meletē, practice or training. The claim answers the fear of death in the prison, and it depends on the further arguments that the soul is not scattered when the body dies.
- death
- knowledge
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that philosophy trains a separation of the soul from bodily distraction, so the practice is a kind of dying before death. A competing reading hears a gloom about the body that the dialogue's arguments may not earn, and notes that 'being dead' is Socrates's provocative phrase for a life already turned toward forms. The sentence is Phaedo 64a, on the day of his death, and the rest of the dialogue defends the soul's survival. Even Simmias thinks the formula will get philosophers mocked.
Did Plato really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The English is close to Harold North Fowler's Loeb translation of Phaedo 64a. The dramatic date is Socrates's last day; Plato wrote the dialogue later.
Which work is it in?
Phaedo 64a Approximate date: c. 380 BCE.