ABSTRACT
Socrates was committed to radical enquiry, the critical examination of all facets of experience. His methods were, for the most part, rational and analytic; they concerned the defInition of concepts and their coherent elaboration in demanding argument. The outcome of his singular pursuit was the elevation ofreason. Reason, in western culture, became the highest instrument in the search for truth. The rise ofthe theoretical man, Nietzsche argued, led to the death of tragedy (for reason tends towards abstraction and utopia) and the diminution of the aesthetic. This may be true but in the Phaedo Plato tells us how Socrates, as he waits to take the fatal hemlock, informs his intellectual disciples of his last dream. In his dream he is commanded to make music. It is as if the philosopher is being invited to confront not what he has achieved in his life, but what he has neglected, even suppressed.
