5 - Creeds to Live By
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
– JesusTO BELIEVE OR NOT TO BELIEVE?
Toward the end of the Phaedo Socrates gives a fairly detailed description of the universe that includes an account of the nature of the underworld and the fates various kinds of people face in the afterlife. After giving this lengthy account and immediately prior to bathing himself in preparation for the drinking of the hemlock, Socrates makes the following remarks:
No sensible man would insist that these things are as I have described them, but I think it is fitting for a man to risk the belief – for the risk is a noble one – that this, or something like this, is true about our souls and their dwelling places, since the soul is evidently immortal, and a man should repeat this to himself as if it were an incantation, which is why I have been prolonging my tale.
This is one of the earliest passages I am aware of in which appears the idea that, while knowledge of the supernatural is beyond our capacity, we should nevertheless try to acquire certain beliefs about it. Socrates' idea seems to be that having certain beliefs about the supernatural will make us “of good cheer” during life, capable of facing death as he did, without fear, and that it will make us better people.
A similar idea underlies Pascal's famous wager.
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- Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe , pp. 143 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005