Myth and Metaphysics in Plato’s Phaedo by David A. White (review)

726 BOOK REVIEWS does not see that the christological options are not exhausted by the relatively crude positions taken by Hick and Knitter on the one hand, and a naively literalistic reading of the New Testament on the other. And this, I think, is because his own arguments as to what is required for faithful Christians rest upon a one-dimensional reading of the New Testament, a reading whose basic assumptions are themselves nonbiblical . But here too, as with the question of truth, the issues are enormously complex, the literature is vast, and Netland can do no more than gesture at the nature of the problem. Of special ethnographic interest is Netland's survey in chapter 7 of the range of current evangelical opinion on the difficult question (dif• ficult, that is, for a Christian exclusivist) of what happens at death to those who have not accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ, either because they are "informationally B.C." (i.e., they have not heard it), or because they were "chronologically B.C." (i.e., they lived before the gospel was proclaimed). Such discussions have a flavor of solemn absurdity to those outside the evangelical fold; their very occurrence should call into question some of the commitments that give rise to them, and they make apparent the severe ·difficulties inherent in the kind of nonbiblical reading of the biblical materials referred to in the pre· ceding paragraph. In all, Professor Netland's book deserves wide reading and discussion . It covers too much ground too quickly, hut it has the great virtue of showing both what must he argued if Christian exclusivism is to he held true, and that these arguments are not yet resolved. University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois PAUL J. GRIFFITHS Myeh and Metaphysics in Plato's Phaedo. By DAVID A. WHITE. Selins· grove, Pennsylvania: Susquehanna Univ. Press, 1989. 316 pp. $45. David White has written a commentary to the Phaedo in order to make clear the purposes its myths serve. There has been a tendency among some interpreters to brush aside this question in their exclusive attention to the arguments of the Phaedo. One of the principal virtues of White's book is to demonstrate that a proper philosophical understanding of the Phaedo cannot so ignore its myths. His demonstration gains support from his insight that the Phaedo is Socrates' swan song. To those who wonder that he does not regard his imminent death a misfortune, Socrates replies by comparing him· self to swans in the following ways: BOOK REVIEWS 727 You probably think that in prophetic skill I am inferior to swans. They, when they perceive that they must die, although having sung their whole life, do then sing mightiest and best (pleista kai kallista), rejoicing that they are about to go away into the presence of the god whose servants they are.... Because they belong to Apollo, they have prophetic powers; and foreseeing the good things in Hades they on that day above all others sing and are glad. But I suppose myself to be in the same service as the swans, dedicated to the same god, to have the prophetic skill from our master no less than swans, and to be released from life no less dispirited (84e4-85b7). The Phaedo, then, expresses Socrates' joy, and though he has sung mightily and well his whole life, on this day he sings pleista kai kallista. White draws attention to this feature of swan song, that the death day's is best, and goes on to predict the same feature within the death day: " as an agent of Apollo, Socrates will speak longer and better the closer he gets to death" (127). The structure of the Phaedo confirms to some extent this prediction. As White notes, " the final proof is the longest of the arguments demonstrating the immortality of soul and . . . the concluding eschatological myth is the longest of the various attempts to depict the afterlife; presumably then both the final proof and the eschatological myth are also the ' best ' of their respective types of discourse" (127). I find White's application of the swan song convincing, with one qualification. He translates pleista kai kallista as " most...