One day Workshop on Plato's Phaedo

Plato's Phaedo concerns the immortality of the soul - this workshop explores the arguments and Plato's use of myth.

Plato's Phaedo is not only one of his most important dialogues in terms of questions it seeks to address but also one of the most moving. It relates Socrates' last day on earth during which he discusses the nature of the soul - the very self of each human being - and its possible immortality. The dialogue starts by drawing upon the traditional Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, as well as Orphic initiations; Plato then explores five interlinked rational proofs of immortality; finally we hear Socrates' intuitive vision of the “true earth” before he calmly drains the cup of hemlock. Thus, says the narrator, “was the end of our comrade, who was, we may fairly say, of all those whom we knew in our time the bravest, and also the wisest and the most just.”

The workshop will include an exploration of the symbolic use of the Theseus myth, and the conjunction of the philosophic path with that of initiation. It will look at the five arguments for immortality together will a brief examination of the underlying Platonic theories of eternal forms and innate ideas. It will also consider why Socrates' story of the true earth arises out of the affirmation of the immortality of the soul.

The workshop will be led by Tim Addey, devotee of Platonic philosophy and author of The Seven Myths of the Soul, Beyond the Shadows and The Unfolding Wings and regular tutor for the Prometheus Trust's educational course, Philosophy as the Love of Wisdom.

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