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Socrates' last words: another look at an ancient riddle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
Socrates' last words are a microcosm of the riddle his character poses to the philosophical reader. Are they sincere or ironic? Do they represent an afterthought prompted by a belated sense of familial responsibility or a death–bed epiphany? Are we to determine their reference in relation to the surface logic of the Phaedo or take them as the sign of a concealed discursive depth? In what follows, I will argue that the answer to these questions depends upon acknowledgement and clarification of the pedagogical challenge Socrates faces in conversation with Simmias and Cebes. What I have to say is prompted, in large measure, by Glenn Mosts recent article which both undertakes substantial analysis of the riddles treatment by the tradition and develops a plausible solution. I do not accept this solution. But the struggle to articulate my misgivings about his argument was indispensible to the development of my own. In view of this, it seems prudent to begin with a brief summary of the position he takes.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 1998
References
1 Phaedo 118. All citations of Platos text follow the Fowler translation, Loeb Classical Library, 36 (Cambridge, MA, 1990). Henceforth, only standarized line numbers will be provided as reference.Google Scholar
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4 Ibid. All citations of Most are taken from this article. Like him, I will leave aside the historical question of whether the words of the request Socrates makes at 118 were in fact his last words. I am interested only in their significance in Platos text.
5 For more on the ring composition of the Republic, see Brumbaugh, Robert, Platonic Studies in Greek Philosophy: Form, Arts, Gadgets and Hemlock (Albany, 1989), pp. 17–27.Google Scholar
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9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid., p. 162.
12 Ibid.
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21 On the politics of Orphism and Pythagoreanism in the context of the ancient polis, see Detienne, M., Between beasts and gods, in Myth, Religion and Society (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 215–28.Google Scholar
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