Phaedo. They
are in every way hostile to the body and they desire to have the soul apart by
itself alone. Would it not be very foolish if they should be frightened and
troubled when this very thing happens, and if they should not be glad to go to
the place where there is hope of attaining
what they longed for all through
life—and they longed for wisdom—and of escaping from the
companionship of that which they hated? When human loves or wives or sons have
died, many men have willingly gone to the other world led by the hope of seeing
there those whom they longed for, and of being with them; and shall he who is
really in love with wisdom and has a firm belief that he can find it nowhere
else
than in the other world grieve when he
dies and not be glad to go there? We cannot think that, my friend, if he is
really a philosopher; for he will confidently believe that he will find pure
wisdom nowhere else than in the other world. And if this is so, would it not be
very foolish for such a man to fear death?
Very foolish, certainly,
said he.Then is it not,
said Socrates, a sufficient indication,
when you see a man troubled because he is going to die, that he was not a lover
of wisdom but a lover of the body?
And this
same man is also a lover of money and of honor, one or both.
Certainly,
said he, it is as you
say.
Then, Simmias,
he
continued, is not that which is called courage especially characteristic
of philosophers?
By all
means,
said he.And
self-restraint—that which is commonly called self-restraint, which
consists in not being excited by the passions and in being superior to them and
acting in a seemly way—is not that characteristic of those alone who
despise the body
and pass their lives in
philosophy?
Necessarily,
said he.For,
said Socrates,
if you care to consider the courage and the self-restraint of other men,
you will see that they are absurd.
How so, Socrates?
You know,
do you not, that all other men count death among the great
evils?
They certainly
do.
And do not brave men face
death—when they do face it—through fear of greater
evils?
That is
true.
Then all except
philosophers are brave through fear. And yet it is absurd to be brave through
fear and cowardice.
Very
true.
And how about those of
seemly conduct? Is their case not the same? They are self-restrained because of
a kind of self-indulgence. We say, to be sure, that this is impossible,
nevertheless their foolish self-restraint amounts to little more than this; for
they fear that they may be deprived of certain pleasures which they desire, and
so they refrain from some because they are under the sway of others.