Phaedo.
The lovers of
knowledge, then, I say, perceive that philosophy, taking possession of the soul
when it is in this state, encourages it gently and tries to set it free,
pointing out that the eyes and the ears and the other senses are full of deceit,
and urging it to withdraw from these, except in so far as their use is
unavoidable, and exhorting it to collect and concentrate itself within itself,
and to trust nothing except
itself and its
own abstract thought of abstract existence; and to believe that there is no
truth in that which it sees by other means and which varies with the various
objects in which it appears, since everything of that kind is visible and
apprehended by the senses, whereas the soul itself sees that which is invisible
and apprehended by the mind. Now the soul of the true philosopher believes that
it must not resist this deliverance, and therefore it stands aloof from
pleasures and lusts and griefs and fears, so far as it can, considering that
when anyone has violent pleasures or fears or griefs or lusts he suffers from
them not merely what one might think—for example, illness or loss of money
spent
for his lusts—but he suffers the
greatest and most extreme evil and does not take it into
account.
What is this evil,
Socrates?
said Cebes.The evil is
that the soul of every man, when it is greatly pleased or pained by anything, is
compelled to believe that the object which caused the emotion is very distinct
and very true; but it is not. These objects are mostly the visible ones, are
they not?
Certainly.
And when
this occurs, is not the soul most completely put in bondage by the
body?
How so?
Because each pleasure or pain nails it as with a
nail to the body and rivets it on and makes it corporeal, so that it fancies the
things are true which the body says are true. For because it has the same
beliefs and pleasures as the body it is compelled to adopt also the same habits
and mode of life, and can never depart in purity to the other world, but must
always go away contaminated with the body; and so it sinks quickly into another
body again and grows into it,
like seed that
is sown. Therefore it has no part in the communion with the divine and pure and
absolute.
What you say,
Socrates, is very true,
said Cebes.This, Cebes, is the reason why the true lovers of knowledge are
temperate and brave; not the world’s reason. Or do you disagree?