The Asceticism of the Phaedo: Pleasure, Purification, and the Soul’s Proper Activity
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 99 (1):1-30 (2017)
Abstract
I argue that according to Socrates in the Phaedo we should not merely
evaluate bodily pleasures and desires as worthless or bad, but actively avoid
them. We need to avoid them because they change our values and make us believe
falsehoods. This change in values and acceptance of falsehoods undermines the
soul’s proper activity, making virtue and happiness impossible for us. I situate
this account of why we should avoid bodily pleasures within Plato’s project in the
Phaedo of providing Pythagorean and Orphic ideas with clearer meanings and
better justifications.
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Archival date: 2017-03-15
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2017-03-11
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905 ( #4,410 of 2,410,401 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
245 ( #1,706 of 2,410,401 )
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