Meno and Phaedo the Role Research Paper

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This then leads Plato to a consideration of how morality can be applied to reason.

The basis of morality -- or virtue -- for the philosopher is happiness. Reason dictates that the greatest joy (or the highest good) is in living according to the dictates of virtue. Hence, if an individual wishes to be ultimately happy, regardless of external circumstances or emotion, will engage in moral actions. As such, both wisdom and virtue work together to attain happiness. Indeed, wisdom is therefore virtue, as it encourages the pursuit of happiness by means of moral action.

It is then the culmination of this wisdom as virtue that enables Socrates to meet his trial and death with a demeanor of calm and poise. Socrates' soul is ordered by means of his philosophy of reason and morality; his reason rules his emotions and his passions. Hence he is able to be kind and charitable to his accusers in the Apology, despite their harsh treatment of him. Socrates cannot be harmed by the disordered unhappiness of others, because he has attained the "highest good," which is inner happiness that is unphased by tragedy, harm, or even the prospect of certain death.

The Phaedo is a post-mortem account of Socrates' death by Phaedo, who is said to have shared the philosopher's last hours. Phaedo reports Socrates as saying, "O my judges, and show that he who has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after death he may hope to receive the greatest good in the other world.

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" The philosopher is calm when contemplating death, because for him it is the ultimate culmination of both virtue and wisdom. These two are the highest philosophical pursuit, while all other goods are merely representations that are subject to the pursuit of these higher goals.

Socrates therefore believes that no earthly pursuit can follow a person into death like the pursuit of ultimate virtue and wisdom. Indeed, it appears that he believes that these goals will be compounded after death to be the philosopher's ultimate reward. In pursuing these throughout life, Socrates has searched for death, which for him is simply the doorway to a different state of being where virtue and wisdom manifest themselves as perfect.

In this case, the role of wisdom is therefore knowledge regarding the ultimate good, how to pursue it, and doing so while subordinating external concerns that relate to emotion and physical concerns. As such, Socrates has trained his mind and body to be ruled by the wisdom of the soul, which knew it would not end with death. Instead, he welcomed death as a beginning of new and greater things......

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