Plato Seeking for “One Real Explanation” in Phaedo Journal Article

What this essay is to discuss is Plato''s theory of explanation in Phaedo. In this dialogue, we observe that Socrates criticizes both the natural scientists’ explanations and Anaxagoras’ theory of Mind since he thinks they could not explain all things, firstly, in a unitary and, secondary, in a real way. Thence, we are to call what Plato is seeking as his ideal explanation in Phaedo “One Real Explanation”. He talks at least about three kinds of explanation, two of which, the confused and foolish way of explanation by Forms and the explanation by Forms appealing to essence, are just "second best" and lower degrees of explanation. His ideal explanation is an explanation that can explain all things by one thing and in a real way. Though he cannot show, at least in Phaedo, how this One Real Explanation can work, we can see Plato completing his plan by the Form of the Good in Republic.

In this dialogue, we observe that Socrates criticizes both the natural scientists’ explanations and Anaxagoras’ theory of Mind since he thinks they could not explain all things, firstly, in a unitary and, secondary, in a real way. Though he cannot show, at least in Phaedo, how this One Real Explanation can work, we can see Plato completing his plan by the Form of the Good in Republic. 2 Socrates' disappointment with natural philosophers, I think, is due to the fact that they could not understand the necessity of One Real Explanation for all things. In this context, when Socrates hears that Mind is considered as the cause of everything, it sounds to him like this: Good should be regarded as the basis of the explanation of all things. At Republic VI, 508e1-3, where Socrates says that the Form of the Good 'gives truth to the things known and the power to know to the knower'8, he wants to set the Good at the highest point of his epistemological structure by which all the elements of this structure are bound. That One Real Explanation, for Plato, is a theory that i) can explain all things by a unitary way of explanation, and ii) can do this with showing how it is good or best for them to be as they are.