Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the Ancient World, grade: 1,0, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Philosophisches Institut), course: "Philosophie der Antike", language: English, abstract: Plato's "Phaidon" describes the events on the day of Socrates' death. Unlike the trial writings Apology and Kriton, however, this is not to be classified as a historical document, which is primarily concerned with a realistic reproduction. This is indicated on the one hand by the fact that the narrator states that he himself was not present on the day of his death, and on the other hand by the literary form chosen, in which a spatial and temporal distance is established from the events. Plato's main concern in Phaidon is rather to prove the immortality of the soul. In order to provide this proof, he has Socrates present four proofs of immortality, which will be the subject of this work. In these proofs, Plato makes use of his central philosophical concepts: the doctrine of ideas and the doctrine of recollection.

A comprehensive book on Plato's Phaedo that reinterprets many famous Platonic ideas, in part by situating them in their context.

Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is a volume of original articles on all aspects of ancient philosophy. The articles may be of substantial length, and include critical notices of major books. OSAP is now published twice yearly, in both hardback and paperback. "'Have you seen the latest OSAP?' is what scholars of ancient philosophy say to each other when they meet in corridors or on coffee breaks. Whether you work on Plato or Aristotle, on Presocratics or sophists, on Stoics, Epicureans, or Sceptics, on Roman philosophers or Greek Neoplatonists, you are liable to find OSAP articles now dominant in the bibliography of much serious published work in your particular subject: not safe to miss." - Malcolm Schofield, Cambridge University "OSAP was founded to provide a place for long pieces on major issues in ancient philosophy. In the years since, it has fulfilled this role with great success, over and over again publishing groundbreaking papers on what seemed to be familiar topics and others surveying new ground to break. It represents brilliantly the vigour-and the increasingly broad scope-of scholarship in ancient philosophy, and shows us all how the subject should flourish." - M.M. McCabe, King's College London

Der Tagungsband enthält eine Auswahl von 41 Vorträgen, welche von den Wissenschaftlern der IPS am 11. Symposium Platonicum in Brasilien unter der Schirmherrschaft der University of Brasília gehalten wurden. Der Band behandelt alle wichtigen Fragen im Zusammenhang mit der Interpretation von Platons Phaidon und der Rezeption dieses zentralen Dialogs in der gesamten Antike.

This study intends principally to isolate and describe the function of myth in the Phaedo in order to show its effect on the complex metaphysics developed throughout the dialogue. It further illustrates how these metaphysical concepts structure the dialogue's concluding eschatological myth.