Knowledge and Wisdom Theme Analysis

In Phaedo, Socrates examines the nature of wisdom, using the process of learning to argue not only for the immortality of the soul, but also for the overall benefit of the life of the mind. Having drawn a clear distinction between the body and the soul, he says that philosophers prepare themselves for death by paying attention only to intellectual pursuits, which he asserts continue beyond death. Knowledge and wisdom, Socrates maintains, have the power to “purify” a person’s soul upon death, and any good philosopher should aim to achieve this purification—which will only lead to the attainment of more wisdom and truth in the afterlife. Accordingly, he claims that one of the main goals of philosophers is to “prepare” for death, since this is how they will finally gain the knowledge they have been searching for all along. This viewpoint frames true wisdom as somewhat elusive in the realm of the living, since Socrates suggests that only in death will philosophers come upon the knowledge they have pursued in life. In order to make this happen, though, one must reach toward wisdom while still alive, purging oneself of corporeal distractions. As such, Socrates portrays the pursuit of knowledge in life as inherently worthwhile, even if true wisdom only comes with death.

It’s important to understand that Socrates believes that body and soul are separate from one another. Taking this viewpoint, he devalues human sensory perception (such as sight and hearing) because he thinks corporeal methods of observation make it impossible to ever “grasp the truth.” This, he maintains, is because “whenever [the soul] attempts to examine anything with the body, it is clearly deceived by it.” Rather than depending upon the physical senses to gather knowledge, Socrates believes “reasoning” is what gets a person closest to “the truth.” When Socrates champions the process of “reasoning,” he prioritizes intellectual thought above all else. The soul, he thinks, should immerse itself in a vacuum of philosophical analysis. By outlining this belief, he implies that the pursuit of knowledge ought to be a person’s top priority in life.

What’s more, Socrates focuses so intently on the attainment of knowledge because he believes it is intrinsically good. “With [wisdom] we have real courage and moderation and justice and, in a word, true virtue,” he says. He argues that a knowledge-based approach to life, which concerns itself only with the attainment of wisdom, will help a person achieve “true virtue,” adding that “wisdom itself is a kind of cleansing or purification.” The “purification” of the soul that wisdom brings about is one of the main reasons Socrates values the life of the mind so much: he believes this “purification” determines one’s fate in the afterlife. “Those who have purified themselves sufficiently by philosophy live in the future altogether without a body;” he says, adding that “they make their way to even more beautiful dwelling places” than those who don’t devote themselves to the pursuit of knowledge. In this way, readers see that Socrates’s commitment to wisdom is wrapped up in his belief that philosophical thinking is rewarded in the afterlife. In turn, the attainment of knowledge isn’t just a simple gathering of information, but a cultivation of “virtue” and the divine. 

Socrates’s investment in the connection between wisdom and the afterlife also emerges when he uses The Theory of Recollection to prove the soul’s immortality. According to this theory (which Socrates also outlines in Meno), humans don’t learn new information, but simply recollect knowledge the soul has already acquired in a past life. Socrates explains this by pointing out that his listeners understand certain concepts even without necessarily encountering actual manifestations of those concepts in real life. For instance, he says that Simmias grasps “the Equal” when he looks at two objects that are similar in size, even if those two objects aren’t exactly the same. This, Socrates says, is proof that Simmias possesses a prior understanding of “the Equal,” since he’s able to “recollect” the concept of equality. In turn, this suggests that his soul contains a wealth of knowledge that it accumulated before Simmias was born—proof that it is, indeed, immortal. Once again, then, Socrates’s approach to the attainment of knowledge influences his beliefs regarding the afterlife, thereby helping him underline why it’s worth examining the nature of wisdom.

For all of Socrates’s confidence, he nonetheless acknowledges that he might not be right about everything he says regarding the afterlife. After providing a lengthy description of the various paths souls take after death, he says, “No sensible man would insist that these things are as I have described them, but I think it is fitting for a man to risk the belief—for the risk is a noble one—that this, or something like this, is true about our souls and their dwelling places […].” Saying this, he admits that it’s impossible to speculate about such unknowable matters. At the same time, though, his opinion that it’s worth believing what he’s said frames the very pursuit of knowledge as an innately noble one, especially since it might encourage a person to “seriously concern himself with the pleasures of learning.” Ultimately, Socrates presents philosophical thought as a deeply worthwhile endeavor, even though a person won’t encounter true wisdom until after death.