Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 85 No. 4, 2015.
Review article
Why Plato did not Shed a Tear in Phaedo?
Saša Horvat
orcid.org/0000-0003-1968-8688
; Theology in Rijeka, Dislocated Studies of Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
In this work we analyse relation between emotions and philosophical arguments in Plato’s »Phaedo«. We claim that a key to understand this relation is Plato’s own absence from dialogue as a character. Scholars of Plato’s theory of emotions have not fully taken into account this bodily absence, which is important because it is through body that humans show their emotions. Furthermore, it is commonly held that Socrates does not show any kind of emotions through his last day of life. On the contrary, we will show that Socrates did indeed demonstrate certain emotions. The hypothesis of this work claims that Plato’s bodily absence from dialogue is because of emotions he could not control when faced with Socrates death. The aim of this paper is to prove that emotions and fear of death in »Phaedo« were stronger than Socrates’ arguments, when it comes to arguing in favour of eternal soul, which is obvious in emotional behaviour of characters in the dialogue and of Plato.
Keywords
Plato; Socrates; emotions; death; soul
Hrčak ID:
151391
URI
Publication date:
18.1.2016.
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