小島 和男

This article treats Plato's Phaed∂． In Phaedo， Plato makes Socrates prove the immortality of the soul four times． But it is possible to read it from the text that all of． the four proofs are imperfect and even the characters， Socrates and his inner circle of friends， also do not think that the proofs are perfect． Then， why are they the proofs？ From consideration on 77d ff．， it is understood that all of the four proofs are， judging from the viewpoint of role， nlust be on par with Mythos and they are only the charms． And the immortality of the soul is not the oblect of the inquiry， but the conclusion that has already been decided， and the hope which we have to bet on． Socrates in Plato's Phaedo thought about the immortality of the soul like that． Moreover， because Plato wrote the work Phaedo， Plato's intention might be able to be read from the assumption that the work．Phaedo per se can be one of the charms． If we were able to think that Plato also， by writing the work Phaedo， was singing charms and trying to persuade the immortality of．the soul to himself， we could think that Plato was able to be heartily agreement with such a way of life of Socrates in this work， such a way to live singing charms and trying to persuade the immortality of the soul to himself。 But， based on the form that one of the characters Phaedo reports and the declaration of Plato's absence， we should guess better that Plato put distance between himself and such Socrates and Socrates itself was the object of the inquiry for Plato．