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Introductory Note
Introductory Note
Socrates, the son of an Athenian sculptor, was born in 469 B.C. He was
trained in his father`s art, but gave it up early to devote his time to the
search for truth and virtue. He took his part as a citizen both in war and in
peace, and bore the hardships of poverty and a shrewish wife with calm
indifference. He did not give formal instruction after the fashion of other
philosophers of his time, but went about engaging people in conversation,
seeking, chiefly by questions, to induce his contemporaries, and especially
the young men, to think clearly and to act reasonably. He made profession of
no knowledge except of his own ignorance, and the famous "Socratic irony" was
shown in his attitude of apparent willingness to learn from anyone who
professed to know. The inevitable result of such conversations, however, was
the reduction of the would-be instructor to a state either of irritation at
the unmasking of his pretensions, or of humility and eagerness to be
instructed by his questioner. It was natural that such a habit should create
enemies, and Socrates was finally accused of introducing new gods and of
corrupting the youth. His defense, as will be seen from the "Apology," was
conducted with his customary firm adherence to his convictions, and with
entire fearlessness of consequences. He could, in all probability, have easily
escaped the death sentence had he been willing to take a conciliatory tone,
but he died (B.C. 399) a martyr to his unswerving devotion to truth. Socrates
wrote nothing, and we learn what we know of his teachings chiefly from his
disciples, Xenophon and Plato.
Plato was also an Athenian, born in 428 B.C. of a distinguished family.
He became a disciple of Socrates at the age of twenty, and after the death of
his master he traveled in Egypt, Sicily, and elsewhere, returning to Athens
about 388. Here he established his school of philosophy in a garden near a
gymnasium, called the Academy, and here he spent the last forty years of his
life, numbering among his pupils his great rival in philosophical renown,
Aristotle. Unlike Socrates, Plato took no part in the civic life of Athens,
but he was much interested in political philosophy, and is said to have been
consulted by statesmen both at home and abroad.
All the works of Plato have been preserved, and they include, besides the
"Phaedo" here printed, the "Apology", "Crito," "Republic," "Symposium,"
"Phaedrus," "Protagoras," "Theaetetus," "Gorgias," and many others. They take
the form of dialogues, in which Plato himself appears, if at all, only as a
listener, and in which the chief speaker is Socrates. As Plato developed the
philosophy of Socrates, especially on speculative lines, far beyond the point
reached by Socrates himself, it is impossible to judge with any exactness
precisely how much of the teaching is the master`s, how much the pupil`s.
The philosophy of these dialogues has remained for over two thousand
years one of the great intellectual influences of the civilized world; and
they are as admirable from the point of view of literature as of philosophy.
The style is not only beautiful in itself, but is adapted with great dramatic
skill to the variety of speakers; and the suggestion of situation and the
drawing of character are the work of a great artist. The dialogue here given
is at once a favorable example of the literary skill of Plato and an intimate
picture of the personality of his master.
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