Importance of the Argument

I am having second thoughts about my essay now that it's due date has arrived. I chose to write about the argument of forms because that perplexed me the most and I don't think I am capable of writing a short essay on all the arguments posed throughout Phaedo. While re-reading the dialogue, I noticed that Socrates did not thoroughly define the theory of forms before Crito, Cebes, and Simmias agreed with him. Perhaps Plato didn't think that Socrates needed to explain himself because he thought so highly of his teacher.

Comments

  1. Matt SillimanApril 2, 2017 at 2:09 PM

    The theory of forms, if theory it is, never really gets spelled out in the dialogues except tacitly. Parmenides is as close to an explicit treatment of it as we have (and again it's largely assumed as background).

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