Book · -360
Phaedo
by Plato
Socrates spends his final hours arguing that the soul survives death — and inviting his friends to find the holes in his logic.
What does Reddit think of Phaedo?
That concentration tells you what the Phaedo is used for: pedagogy. The ↑92 comment goes straight to it, noting that instructors assign the Phaedo in first-year tutorials specifically because it contains bad arguments — the badness is the lesson. The dialogue is nearly always named alongside Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito as the Socratic quartet most likely to represent the historical Socrates. r/askphilosophy (↑89) invokes Whitehead's footnotes-to-Plato quip to explain why. The ↑121 comment recommends it as an introduction to argumentation because it teaches how arguments are correctly constructed. r/philosophy adds 6 mentions, r/Stoicism 2. Activity peaked at 23 mentions in 2024, up from the 10-16 range that characterized most prior years. This is a book that generates discussion, not heat.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Immortality of the soul
- · Socratic argumentation
- · Death and dying with equanimity
- · The relationship between Socrates and Plato
- · Philosophy as preparation for death
- · Bad arguments as teaching tools
Common praise
- + r/askphilosophy recommends it as one of the best entry points for learning how to construct and evaluate arguments.
- + The dialogue gets assigned in first-year university philosophy classes because the flawed arguments give students something real to dissect in tutorials.
- + The Phaedo sits at the center of the Socratic quartet — Euthyphro, Apology, Crito — that r/askphilosophy (↑89) treats as the foundation of the entire canon.
Common criticism
- − r/askphilosophy (↑92) flags that the Phaedo contains demonstrably bad arguments, which makes it unreliable as a source of Platonic doctrine rather than just Platonic style.
- − With only 6 mentions in r/philosophy over 7 years, it rarely generates sustained debate outside the pedagogical context.
- − r/Stoicism shows up twice — present but peripheral; the soul-immortality argument is Platonic, not Stoic, and the sub knows it.
Who it's for
Read it if you want to understand what philosophy professors mean when they say Plato. The Phaedo is the text r/askphilosophy (↑89) points to when explaining Whitehead's claim that Western philosophy is footnotes to Plato — and it's assigned in first-year classes precisely because its arguments can be beaten, which makes it a better introduction to philosophical method than a text that's simply correct. If you've read the Apology and Crito and want to follow Socrates to the end, the Phaedo is the natural next step. Readers drawn to Stoicism show up in the data too — 2 mentions in r/Stoicism — though the connection is loose.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Phaedo?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“Well, any decent philosophy professor would not have any issue talking about philosophy with anyone with zero background in it. There's nothing to be embarrassed about, as long as you go in with an open mind. Honesty and humility is the best tact to meet one's girlfriend's dad, regardless what he do…
“The standard view is that only the early, so-called Socratic dialogues represent Socrates's actual ideas (if any of the dialogues do). The main ones there are Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo. The vast majority of Plato's dialogues, then, aren't seen as representing Socrates's ideas at all. T…
“It is often given to first-year students precisely because it begins with some bad arguments - this gives students some fun work to do in tutorials That said, there are plenty of other options, even within Plato. In my classes we learned the *Euthyphro* first, then a few others (including the *Pha…
“A few reasons. (Note: in early Platonic writings the line between Plato and Socrates is blurry but often believed to be most true to Socrates) 1. To Socrates you cannot truly harm a virtuous person by way of physical attack. The only way for a virtuous person to be harmed is by being vicious. Socra…
“Can't do much better than Plato's dialogues! They're fun and engaging and form the basis for most of western philosophy. Alfred North Whitehead once (half) joked that all of western philosophy consists in "footnotes to Plato." I'd recommend starting with the trio which covers Socrates' trial and ex…
“From Twilight of the Idols: >But Socrates divined still more. He saw right through his noble Athenians; he perceived that his case, his peculiar case, was no exception even in his time. The same kind of degeneracy was silently preparing itself everywhere: ancient Athens was dying out. And Socrates …
“It might be helpful if you explained why you believe that Socrates "believed in slavery and he thought slaves inferior to free humans." In this context, it is interesting that you mention the Phaedo. If memory serves, Phaedo himself was a slave, whom Socrates helped free. Slavery was an extreme…
“Arguing for suicide isn't a good long-term strategy when you're looking to gain followers and readers;-) In many if not most societies even assisted dying in desperate medical cases is considered very controversial nowadays; in the past this would be an extreme stance taken by philosopher and would…
Convinced? Pick up Phaedo
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with Phaedo — counted from the comments, not curated.
Apology
Plato
A philosopher on trial chooses death over silence, defending a life of relentless questioning before the jury that will kill him.
Sophie's World
Jostein Gaarder
A teenage girl in Norway starts receiving anonymous philosophy lessons by mail and slowly realizes she might be a character in someone else's story.
The Problems of Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell wrote a 90-page intro to analytic philosophy in 1912 and r/askphilosophy still hands it to newcomers first, every time.
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle
Aristotle's 2,400-year-old argument that living well depends on virtue, leisure, and the company you keep — still the canonical text for the field.
Meditations on First Philosophy
René Descartes
A philosopher strips away every belief he holds to find the one thing that can't be doubted, then rebuilds the world from there — in six meditations, 80 pages.
Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant
Kant's 1781 attempt to settle the limits of human knowledge — the book that split philosophy in two and still hasn't been fully digested.
Phaedo — frequently asked
Is the Phaedo a good place to start with Plato?+
Yes, but not first. r/askphilosophy (↑89) recommends starting with Euthyphro and Apology, then arriving at the Phaedo as the capstone of the Socratic quartet.
What does Reddit think the Phaedo actually teaches?+
Argumentation, mostly. The ↑121 comment recommends it for learning how arguments are correctly constructed. The ↑92 comment notes that instructors assign it because it contains bad arguments — giving students something to push back against in tutorials. The soul-immortality thesis is the subject; the real lesson is logic.
Does the Phaedo represent what Socrates actually believed?+
Contested. r/askphilosophy (↑92) explains that the standard scholarly view limits the historical Socrates to the early dialogues — Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo — while treating everything else as Plato's invention.
Should I read the Phaedo if I'm interested in Stoicism?+
Depends on why. The Phaedo shows up twice in r/Stoicism across 7 years — present, but not central. The equanimity-in-the-face-of-death theme overlaps with Stoic concerns, but the soul-immortality argument is distinctly Platonic. Read it for the argument, not for direct Stoic doctrine.