Logos And Psyche In The Phaedo

Download or read book Logos and Psyche in the Phaedo written by Jesse I. Bailey and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2018-01-19 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an original interpretation and close reading of Plato’s Phaedo, focusing on the relation between logos and the soul in order to illuminate the ethical and political dimensions of philosophy as “care of the soul.” Jesse I. Bailey argues that the central issue of the dialogue is the relation between logos and the defining activity of the soul. The soul, in accord with logos, gathers the multiplicity of phenomena into the intelligible wholes of experience. This definitive activity also applies to the soul itself, as the soul gathers itself to itself in logos. Ethical living demands the development of a harmonious unity in the self through this activity. Thus, the book argues that the traditional “pillars” of Platonism—the immortality of the soul and the Forms—are presented not as fully-developed theories to be accepted by the reader whole cloth, but rather as provocations for thought.