Phaedo Part II

Two aspects of the final third of the Phaedo stuck out to me, one of which deal with the nature of philosophy and one of which deals with the theory of the Forms. With respect to philospohy, Socrates seems to argue that philosophy is lifelong process, because ascertaining the truth via argumentation is a lifelong process. I believe that Socrates is right on both of these points (I will not defend either of us here). Furthermore, I believe that it is of paramount importance that these points guide teachers and practicioners of philosophy. If philosophy and the ascertation of truth generally speaking is a slow and long process, we must communicate this in our classrooms. We can, of course, do this in a number of ways. For example, I try not to present more than four or five significant concepts in any given class. The reason for this is that I want my students to have time both to understand the concepts and then critically evaluate them. Likewsie, I start every class (besides the first day) by referencing what we discussed the previous class. I do this to help students see (a) that our class is something of a philosophical journey and (b) that evaluating the truths we consider is a process. Yes, we still are considering issues from the previous class (and from the beginning of the course for that matter), because it takes a long time to ascertain the truth via argumentation. In addition, I think that constructing courses with an eye to the history of the developments of the main issues in the course helps students to see the process like nature of discerning the truth. When one does this, students get the chance to see the progress and failures that some of the most brilliant thinkers have made about the topics that the students will take up. I acknowledge that some students find it demoralizing to see just how "little progresss" human beings have made in philosophy.Rather than keep students from this realization, I think that we should discuss what this may highlight about truth, human nature, and the limits of human inquiry. Here I am specifically thinking about the important theme of human finitued that runs throughout Western and Eastern philosophy.We do not, unless we are anti-realists, however, want to deny that human beings have made philosophical progess. Moreover, we need to stress to our students that what they believe impacts how they live. Thus, in a very real sense, they are stuck doing philosophy whether they like it or not. That is to say, most of my students realize that even though it is difficult to determine whether or not there is an afterlife, the answer to that question, or better yet, what they believe is the answer to that question, will substantially shape how they live their lives. So let us, like Socrates, come along side our students as we both seek the truth via argumentaiton. Turning to the theory of Forms, I found Socrates' discussion of the Forms woefully insufficient. Here I will simply mention two important issues that Socrates did not address, but must for his account to be superior to its rivals. First, it is not clear whether every predicate is a Form on Socrates' account. Socrates begins to address this issues when he talks about relations (e.g., John is taller than Jane), but I do not recall him saying much more than that Forms cannot consist of opposites; tallness, for example, cannot consist of shortness. Socrates must say more on this point, for at the very minimum he needs to provide some criterion for determining if and when a predicate does refer to an actual Form. Second, Socrates needs to explain how the different entities that reflect/participate in the form relate to one another on Earth. For instance, I am currently wearing a brown wool jacket. How, on Socrates' view,do the forms of jacketness and brownness relate/work together to make my jacket? Similarly, how do the virtues of courage, wisdom, empathy, and wittiness (to borrow from Aristotle) relate to on another in the soul, especially if they cannot be composite parts that make of the soul? These, I believe, are important questions that Socrates still needs to address.