Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo depict Socrates' defense at trial, his argument for obeying Athenian law, and his case for the soul's immortality. This deck covers his responses to the charges, his distinctions among accusers, and the Delphic oracle's role.
1 / 142
Chapter 1 · Question
How does Socrates respond to Melitus's charge of corrupting the youth?
WakeCards · wakecards.com · Big ideas. Quick review.
Chapter 1 · Answer
The author explains that Socrates cross-examines his accuser Melitus, reducing him to a dilemma: either Socrates corrupted the youth designedly, which would be absurd, or he did so undesignedly, for which he could not be liable to punishment. This defense, however, avails him nothing, and he is condemned to die by drinking hemlock.
WakeCards · wakecards.com · Big ideas. Quick review.
Arrow keys move between cards. Space or Enter flips.
All questions and answers
Every card in the deck, in reading order. Click a chapter to expand. The reviewer above uses the same content.
Section 13 cards
How does Socrates respond to Melitus's charge of corrupting the youth?
The author explains that Socrates cross-examines his accuser Melitus, reducing him to a dilemma: either Socrates corrupted the youth designedly, which would be absurd, or he did so undesignedly, for which he could not be liable to punishment. This defense, however, avails him nothing, and he is condemned to die by drinking hemlock.
Chapter 1
What argument does Socrates make in the Crito about a citizen's obligations?
In the Crito, Socrates argues that it is wrong to return evil for evil, and that the obligations a citizen owes to his State are more binding than those a child owes his parents or a slave his master. Therefore it is his duty to submit to the laws of Athens at whatever cost to himself. Crito has no answer, and Socrates decides to submit to his fate.
Chapter 1
How does Socrates argue for the immortality of the soul in the Phædo?
The author describes Socrates arguing that contraries cannot exist in the same thing at the same time—heat can never admit cold, for example. Life and death are contraries and can never coexist; but wherever there is life there is soul, so the soul contains what is contrary to death and can never admit death. Consequently, the soul is immortal.
Chapter 1
Section 24 cards
What are the two sets of accusers Socrates distinguishes in his defense?
Socrates distinguishes between his "first accusers," who have slandered him for many years, and the "latest accusers" such as Anytus and his party. He says he fears the old accusers more, since they influenced his audience from childhood and accused him in absentia, making them impossible to name or cross-examine. He therefore proposes to defend himself against the older charges first.
Chapter 2
What specific charge does the old calumny spread about Socrates?
The old accusers spread the report that there is one Socrates, a wise man, who occupies himself with celestial matters, explores everything under the earth, and makes the worse appear the better reason. Socrates says hearers of this conclude that such investigators do not believe in gods. He notes these accusers are numerous and spoke during his audience's credulous youth, mostly in his absence.
Chapter 2
How does Socrates respond to Aristophanes' comic portrayal of him?
Socrates says the accusation echoes Aristophanes' comedy, where a Socrates is carried about claiming to walk in the air and performing other buffooneries. Socrates states he understands nothing of such things, and calls on those who have heard him converse to testify whether he has ever discussed such subjects. He adds he does not disparage the science itself, only rejects being prosecuted on this charge.
Chapter 2
What does Socrates ask of the jurors regarding his manner of speech?
Socrates asks the jurors not to be surprised or disturbed if he defends himself in the language he uses in the forum and marketplace, since at over seventy he now comes before a court for the first time and is a stranger to its speech. He asks them to disregard the manner and consider only whether what he says is just, calling this the virtue of a judge, while truth-speaking is the orator's.
Chapter 2
Section 34 cards
What did the Delphic oracle answer when Chaerephon asked if anyone was wiser than Socrates?
Chaerephon went to Delphi and asked the oracle whether anyone was wiser than Socrates. The Pythian answered that there was no one wiser. Socrates cites the god at Delphi as witness to his wisdom and notes Chaerephon's brother can confirm the story, since Chaerephon himself is dead.
Chapter 3
How did Socrates interpret being wiser than the reputedly wise man he examined?
Socrates concluded he was wiser in a small way: neither he nor the other man knew anything great and good, but the other fancied he knew something though he knew nothing, while Socrates did not fancy he knew what he did not know. This made Socrates odious to that man and to many present.
Chapter 3
What did Socrates conclude about the poets after questioning them about their poems?
Socrates found that almost anyone present could explain the poems better than the poets who composed them. He concluded the poets do not produce their work by wisdom but by natural inspiration and enthusiasm, like prophets and seers who say fine things without understanding them. He also found the poets thought themselves wisest in other matters where they were not.
Chapter 3
What pattern did Socrates observe among those with the highest reputation for knowledge?
Socrates went to politicians, then poets, obeying the god to test the oracle. He found that those with the highest reputation appeared most deficient, while others considered inferior came nearer to understanding. He described feeling grieved and alarmed at making himself odious, yet regarded the oracle as of the greatest moment.
Chapter 3
Section 44 cards
Whom did Socrates visit after the poets, and what did he find?
Socrates went to the artisans, confident he would find them possessed of much beautiful knowledge. He was not deceived: they knew things he did not, and in that respect were wiser than he. But the best workmen, like the poets, fell into the same error—each, because he excelled in his art, thought himself very wise in other most important matters, and this mistake obscured the wisdom they really possessed.
Chapter 4
How does Socrates interpret the oracle's meaning about human wisdom?
Socrates says the god appears really wise and means by the oracle that human wisdom is worth little or nothing. He argues the god did not name Socrates specifically but used his name as an example: the wisest man is the one who, like Socrates, knows he is in reality worth nothing with respect to wisdom. Socrates then continues searching in obedience to the god.
Chapter 4
Why does Socrates say young wealthy men following him cause anger against him?
Young men with much leisure from wealthy families follow Socrates of their own accord, delight in hearing men tested, and imitate him by testing others. They find many who fancy they know something though they know little. Those tested grow angry at Socrates rather than at the imitators, calling him a pestilent fellow who corrupts the youth, and recite stock charges against philosophers.
Chapter 4
Who are Socrates' three accusers and what grievance does each hold?
Socrates names Melitus, Anytus, and Lycon as his attackers. Melitus is angry on account of the poets, Anytus on account of the artisans and politicians, and Lycon on account of the rhetoricians. He says these men, being ambitious, vehement, and numerous, have long and diligently calumniated him, filling the jurors' ears, and he wonders if he can remove so old a prejudice in so short a time.
Chapter 4
Section 54 cards
How does Socrates use horses to challenge Melitus's claim that he alone corrupts the youth?
Socrates argues by analogy: for horses, only a few trainers improve them while the many who handle them spoil them, and the same holds for all animals. So it would be great good-fortune if only one person corrupted the youth and the rest benefited them. He adds that Melitus has shown no care for youth, never attending to the matters he accuses Socrates of.
Chapter 5
What dilemma does Socrates pose about whether he corrupts the youth designedly or undesignedly?
Socrates argues that no one wishes to be injured by associates, since the bad harm those near them and the good benefit them. If he corrupted the youth designedly, he would bring evil on himself, which he cannot believe. If undesignedly, the law calls for taking him aside to teach and admonish, not accusing him in court; Melitus shunned instruction and chose punishment.
Chapter 5
How does Socrates expose a contradiction in Melitus's indictment regarding the gods?
Melitus first says Socrates teaches belief in strange new deities, then says outright that Socrates believes in no gods at all. Socrates notes that claiming he disbelieves in gods while believing in things relating to demons is self-contradictory, since demons are held to be gods or children of gods. He compares Melitus to someone posing an enigma to test whether Socrates will catch the jest.
Chapter 5
How does Socrates respond to Melitus's claim that he calls the sun a stone and the moon earth?
Socrates says Melitus is really accusing Anaxagoras of Clazomene, whose books are full of such assertions. He notes the young could buy those teachings for a drachma at most in the orchestra and ridicule Socrates if he pretended they were his own, especially since they are so absurd. Socrates then asks whether he appears to believe there is no god, and Melitus says none whatever.
Chapter 5
Section 64 cards
How does Socrates refute Meletus's charge of atheism using demons?
Socrates argues that since he admits the existence of demons, and demons are either a kind of gods or the children of gods, it is absurd to claim he denies gods. He compares it to thinking mules exist but not horses and asses. He concludes no one of sense could believe a person accepts demon-related things yet denies gods, demons, and heroes.
Chapter 6
Why does Socrates say fearing death is reprehensible ignorance?
Socrates argues that fearing death is thinking one knows what one does not know, since no one knows whether death may be the greatest of goods. He calls this the most reprehensible ignorance: to think one knows what one does not know. He contrasts this with acting unjustly or disobeying a superior, which he knows to be evil.
Chapter 6
What does Socrates say he would do if acquitted on condition he stop philosophizing?
Socrates says he would obey God rather than the Athenians and would not cease studying philosophy as long as he breathes. He would continue exhorting anyone he meets, urging them to care for wisdom, truth, and the soul before riches, glory, and honor, since he believes virtue produces riches and other blessings, not the reverse.
Chapter 6
How does Socrates use his military posts to justify continuing philosophy?
Socrates notes that at Potidaea, Amphilopolis, and Delium he stayed where the generals posted him and faced death. He argues it would be strange to desert the post the deity assigned him—living a life of philosophy and examining himself and others—out of fear of death, and that doing so would justly convict him of disobeying the oracle.
Chapter 6
Section 73 cards
Why does Socrates say he avoids public politics?
Socrates says a divine and spiritual influence, a kind of voice present since childhood, diverts him from what he is about to do but never urges him on. This voice opposed his meddling in public politics, which he says was proper: he argues that anyone who sincerely opposes the multitude and prevents unjust acts cannot be safe, and must live privately if he wishes to survive.
Chapter 7
What did Socrates do as senator during the generals' trial?
As a senator of the Antiochean tribe serving as Prytanes, Socrates alone opposed the assembly's illegal collective condemnation of the ten generals who had not recovered the dead after the sea-fight. He voted against the people and faced denunciation and threats, choosing to side with law and justice rather than join an unjust design through fear of imprisonment or death.
Chapter 7
How did Socrates respond to the Thirty Tyrants' order?
The Thirty summoned Socrates and four others to the Tholus and ordered them to bring Leon the Salaminian from Salamis for execution. Socrates alone went home instead of fetching Leon, showing in deed that he did not care for death but only for doing nothing unjust or unholy. He says he might have been put to death had that government not been quickly overthrown.
Chapter 7
Section 84 cards
Why does Socrates say people enjoy spending time with him?
Socrates claims they delight in hearing those closely questioned who think they are wise but are not, which he says is by no means disagreeable. He insists this duty was enjoined on him by the deity, through oracles, dreams, and every mode by which divine decrees have ever commanded anything. He offers this as truth easily confuted if false.
Chapter 8
How does Socrates answer the charge that he corrupted the youth?
He argues that if he had corrupted any youths, those now advanced in life, or their fathers, brothers, and relatives, should rise up and accuse him. Instead, many relatives of his associates are present and ready to assist him, which he says shows Melitus speaks falsely and he speaks the truth.
Chapter 8
Why does Socrates refuse to bring his sons forward and beg for acquittal?
He says he has relatives and three sons, one grown and two boys, but will not parade them to win sympathy. He refuses not from contumacy or disrespect, but out of regard for his own character, the judges', and the city's, since it would be shameful at his age and reputation to stage such piteous dramas.
Chapter 8
Why does Socrates say a judge must not be swayed by entreaty?
He argues a judge sits not to administer justice out of favor but to judge rightly, and is sworn to decide according to the laws, not to show favor to whom he pleases. Entreating a judge would accustom both sides to violate oaths, and since he is accused of impiety, persuading the judges by entreaty would effectively teach them there are no gods.
Chapter 8
Section 94 cards
What penalty does Socrates propose for himself, and why?
Socrates says that if he is judged by his true deserts, he deserves a reward: free maintenance in the Prytaneum. He argues this suits a poor benefactor who needs leisure to give the city good advice, and that he deserves it more than an Olympic victor, since such a man makes the city appear happy while Socrates makes it so.
Chapter 9
Why does Socrates reject exile as a penalty?
Socrates says he would only love life that much if he were devoid of reason. He notes that his fellow citizens could not endure his manner of life and discourses, so others will not easily bear them either. Wherever he goes the youth will listen to him; if he repulses them they will drive him out, and if not, their fathers and kindred will banish him.
Chapter 9
What does Socrates call the greatest good, and what life is not worth living?
Socrates says the greatest good to man is to discourse daily on virtue and the other things he discussed, examining both himself and others. He affirms that a life without investigation is not worth living. He adds that if he said he could live a silent and quiet life, some would not believe him, thinking he spoke ironically.
Chapter 9
How does Socrates explain his conviction, and what does he say about avoiding death?
Socrates says he was convicted not for want of arguments but for want of audacity and impudence, refusing to lament and say things unworthy of a freeman. He says it is not right in trial or battle to use every means to avoid death, and that depravity runs swifter than death: he, slow and aged, was overtaken by the slower, while his accusers were overtaken by wickedness.
Chapter 9
Section 103 cards
Why does Socrates take his daimonion's silence as evidence death is a blessing?
Socrates says his guardian deity's prophetic voice had often opposed him even in trifling matters when he was about to do wrong. Yet it never opposed him leaving home, coming to trial, or speaking. He concludes what has befallen him must be a blessing, since the accustomed signal could not have failed to oppose him unless he were about to meet some good.
Chapter 10
What two possibilities does Socrates give for what death is?
Socrates says dying is one of two things: either the dead are annihilated with no sensation at all, or there is a change and passage of the soul from one place to another. If it is privation of sensation like a dreamless sleep, death is a wonderful gain. If it is a removal to Hades, he would gladly die often to question and examine the people there.
Chapter 10
What does Socrates ask the judges to do for his sons?
Socrates asks the judges to punish his sons when they grow up, paining them as he pained the judges, if the sons seem to care for riches or anything else before virtue. If the sons think themselves to be something when they are nothing, the judges should reproach them for not attending to what they ought. He says this would be just treatment for him and his sons.
Chapter 10
Section 114 cards
According to the introduction, what twofold design did Plato have in the Crito?
Stallbaum remarks that Plato had a twofold design: primarily to free Socrates from the imputation of having corrupted the Athenian youth, and secondarily to establish the principle that a good citizen must always obey the laws of his country. The introduction says these points are interwoven, with the general principle illustrated through Socrates' example.
Chapter 11
What dream does Socrates report, and how does he interpret it?
Socrates says a beautiful, majestic woman in white garments seemed to approach and call to him, saying, 'Socrates, three days hence you will reach fertile Pythia.' He considers the dream very clear, and uses it to conjecture that the ship will not arrive that day but the next, meaning he will die the day after its arrival.
Chapter 11
Why does Crito urge Socrates to escape, and what does he fear?
Crito fears that if Socrates dies, he loses a friend he will never replace, and will appear to those who don't know them well to have valued money over friends, since he could have saved Socrates by spending money. He also warns that informers might trouble the friends for helping Socrates escape, but says they are justified in taking that risk.
Chapter 11
How does Socrates respond to Crito's concern about the opinion of the many?
Socrates says they should not care so much for the opinion of the many, since the most worthy men, whom they ought rather to regard, will think matters transpired as they really did. He adds that the multitude can effect neither the greatest evils nor the greatest good, since they can make a man neither wise nor foolish but do whatever chances.
Chapter 11
Section 124 cards
What does Crito offer to fund Socrates' escape?
Crito says the sum needed to save Socrates is not large, and that he and other friends can pay it. He offers his own fortune, and notes that Simmias the Theban and Cebes are ready to spend theirs, adding that informers are cheap. He also says he has friends in Thessaly who would esteem Socrates and insure his safety there.
Chapter 12
What accusations does Crito make against Socrates' refusal to escape?
Crito argues Socrates is acting unjustly by giving himself up when he could be saved, thereby doing what his enemies wanted. He says Socrates betrays his sons by abandoning them to an orphan's likely fate, and calls this the most indolent course, inconsistent with Socrates' profession of virtue. He adds he is ashamed for Socrates and for his friends, fearing the affair will look like their cowardice.
Chapter 12
What principle does Socrates say governs his decisions?
Socrates says he has always been the kind of person who obeys nothing within him but reason, as it appears best to him on mature deliberation. He says his former reasons cannot be rejected just because misfortune has befallen him; they still appear the same, and he respects and honors them. He will not give in to Crito even if the multitude threatens bonds, death, and confiscation.
Chapter 12
How does Socrates use the gymnastic trainer analogy to distinguish opinions?
Socrates gets Crito to agree that we should respect the opinions of the wise and not the foolish. He then asks whether a man in training should heed the praise and censure of everyone or only of the one physician or trainer. Crito says only that one. Socrates concludes the athlete should fear that one man's censure, not the multitude's, and that disobeying the knowledgeable one brings evil.
Chapter 12
Section 134 cards
Whose opinion on just and unjust matters should we follow, according to Socrates?
Socrates argues we should not regard the opinion of the multitude on things just, honorable, and good, but rather the opinion of the one who understands these things—truth itself. He compares this to the body: just as being persuaded by those who do not understand about health impairs the body, so obeying the ignorant about justice corrupts that part of us which justice benefits and injustice ruins.
Chapter 13
What does Socrates say about returning an injury for an injury?
Socrates argues it is never right to act unjustly, and since doing evil to men differs in no respect from committing injustice, one must never return an injury or do evil to anyone however one has suffered. He notes only a few hold this view, and those who disagree with it have no sentiment in common and must despise each other.
Chapter 13
What does Socrates say we should be anxious about, rather than merely living?
Socrates affirms the principle that we are not to be anxious about living but about living well, and that living well, honorably, and justly are the same thing. From this he derives the question of whether leaving prison without the Athenians' permission is just; if just, they will attempt it, and if not, they will give it up.
Chapter 13
Which considerations does Socrates tell Crito to set aside in deciding whether to escape?
Socrates warns Crito to beware of considerations about outlay of money, reputation, and the education of children, since these belong to the multitudes who rashly put one to death and would restore one to life without reason. Since reason requires it, they must consider only whether acting justly in paying money and contracting obligations to those who lead him hence—both leaders and led—or whether they would act unjustly.
Chapter 13
Section 144 cards
In the Laws' speech, what three charges of injustice does a disobedient citizen face?
The Laws claim a citizen who disobeys is guilty in three respects: because he does not obey the laws that gave him being, because he does not obey those that nurtured him, and because, having made a compact to obey, he neither obeys nor persuades the laws when he thinks they are wrong.
Chapter 14
What two options do the Laws say they offer citizens instead of rigid command?
The Laws say they do not rigidly command but leave a choice of two things: either to persuade the laws that they are wrong, or to do what the laws require. Socrates, they argue, does neither, since he neither persuades nor obeys.
Chapter 14
What proof do the Laws offer that Socrates especially agreed to Athens' rule?
The Laws cite Socrates' conduct: he rarely left Athens, never went abroad for sightseeing except once to the Isthmian games and for military service, had no wish to know other cities or laws, and fathered children there—evidence he was satisfied with Athens and its government.
Chapter 14
How do the Laws use Socrates' trial to argue he broke his compact?
The Laws note that at his trial Socrates could have proposed exile and left with the city's consent, but he claimed he was not grieved to die and preferred death to exile. Now, they say, he tries to do without consent what he then refused, acting like a runaway slave.
Chapter 14
Section 153 cards
What does the Laws' speech say Socrates' friends risk if he escapes?
The Laws warn that Socrates' friends will risk being banished, deprived of citizenship, or forfeiting their property. As for Socrates himself, going to well-governed cities like Thebes or Megara would make him an enemy to their polity, and those who regard their country would suspect him as a corrupter of the laws.
Chapter 15
What does the Laws' speech predict about Socrates' reputation in Thessaly?
The Laws say Thessaly has the greatest disorder and licentiousness, and its people might gladly hear Socrates drolly recount his escape in disguise. But he would live in abject dependence on all men as their slave, and if he offended anyone he would hear things unworthy of him, leaving little room for discourses about justice and virtue.
Chapter 15
How does Socrates describe the effect of the Laws' arguments on him?
Socrates says he seems to hear these words as the votaries of Cybele seem to hear the flutes, and their sound booms in his ear, making him incapable of hearing anything else. He tells Crito that while he retains his present opinions, contrary arguments will be spoken in vain, and Crito replies he has nothing to say.
Chapter 15
Section 164 cards
How does Socrates define philosophy at the start of this section?
Socrates states that philosophy is nothing else than a preparation for and meditation on death. Death separates soul from body, while philosophy draws the mind away from bodily things toward truth and virtue. The true philosopher is not led astray by bodily pleasures, since the senses are the source of ignorance and evil, and so frees the mind from the body as much as possible.
Chapter 16
What is Socrates's first argument for the soul's continued existence?
It rests on the ancient belief that souls exist in Hades and are born again from the dead. Socrates supports this with the law of nature that contraries come from contraries: greater from less, heat from cold, life from death and vice versa. If this were not so, all nature would eventually become dead, as if no one ever awoke from sleep.
Chapter 16
What is Socrates's argument from reminiscence?
Sensible things remind us of other things, but also of abstract ideas like equality, beauty, justice, and goodness, which the mind grasps without the senses. Since we perceive only individual things through the senses, the mind must have acquired this knowledge before this life. Therefore the soul existed before it was united with the body.
Chapter 16
How does Socrates refute Simmias's claim that the soul is a harmony?
Socrates notes that the soul was admitted to exist before the body, but harmony is produced after the lyre is formed, so the cases differ. Further, there are degrees of harmony, but every soul is equally a soul. If the soul were harmony, it could not partake of vice, which is discord, and one soul could not be more or less virtuous than another.
Chapter 16
Section 174 cards
How does Socrates argue the soul cannot admit death?
Socrates argues that contraries cannot co-exist in the same thing, and things containing a contrary within themselves cannot admit that contrary. Since life and death are contraries and the soul always brings life, it contains the contrary of death and can never admit death—therefore it is immortal. Cebes accepts this; Simmias still doubts.
Chapter 17
Why was there a long delay between Socrates' trial and death?
The Athenians sent an annual embassy to Delos, honoring a vow to Apollo from Theseus' rescue of the fourteen youths from Crete. During this period the city was purified and no public execution could occur until the ship returned. Its poop was crowned the day before the trial, so Socrates remained in prison until the ship came back.
Chapter 17
What does Socrates say about how his body should be buried?
When Crito asks how he wishes to be buried, Socrates answers cheerfully, 'Just as you please, if only you can catch me.' Smiling, he reminds them that after death he will no longer be with them, and asks the others to stand surety to Crito for his absence from the body, as they had formerly been bound for his presence before the judges.
Chapter 17
What were Socrates' last words and final request?
After drinking the poison calmly and walking until his legs grew heavy, Socrates lay down as his body grew cold from the feet upward. His last words were, 'Crito, we owe a cock to Æsculapius; pay it, therefore, and do not neglect it.' Phædo concludes that he was the best, most wise and just man of his time.
Chapter 17
Section 184 cards
Why does Socrates say he composed poems in prison?
Socrates says he wrote them not to compete with Evenus but to obey a recurring dream that told him to practice music. He had earlier assumed philosophy was the highest music, but after his trial he composed a hymn to Apollo and versified Aesop's fables to discharge his conscience, in case the dream meant popular music.
Chapter 18
What feeling does Phaedo describe being present at Socrates' death?
Phaedo says he felt no pity, since Socrates seemed happy and fearless, and he was not pleased by the philosophical talk as usual. Instead an unaccountable mixture of pleasure and pain possessed him, knowing Socrates was about to die. The others felt similarly, laughing and weeping, especially Apollodorus.
Chapter 18
Who was present at Socrates' death, and who was absent?
Present were Apollodorus, Critobulus, Crito, Hermogenes, Epigenes, Aeschines, Antisthenes, Ctesippus, Menexenus, and other countrymen; also strangers Simmias, Cebes, Phaedondes, Euclides, and Terpsion. Plato was sick, and Aristippus and Cleombrotus were said to be at Aegina.
Chapter 18
What does Socrates say about the relation of pleasure and pain?
Socrates observes that pleasure and pain will not both be present to a man at once, yet pursuing one almost always brings the other, as if joined at one head. He says Aesop would have made a fable of it, and notes his own case: pain from the chain, now pleasure succeeding.
Chapter 18
Section 194 cards
Why does Socrates say a philosopher should be willing to follow a dying man?
Socrates argues that every worthy student of philosophy will be willing to follow one who is dying, though he adds that such a person will perhaps not commit violence on himself, since that is said not to be allowable. He treats this willingness as characteristic of anyone who genuinely engages in philosophy, not as a command to suicide.
Chapter 19
What image does Socrates use to explain why men should not free themselves from life?
Socrates cites the mystical doctrine that men are in a kind of prison and ought not to free themselves and escape, which he finds difficult to understand. He adds that the gods take care of us and that men are one of their possessions, so a man ought not to kill himself before the deity lays him under necessity, as now on Socrates.
Chapter 19
What objection does Cebes raise against Socrates' claim that philosophers should welcome death?
Cebes argues that if God cares for us and we are his property, the wisest men should not be glad to leave the service of the best of masters, since a sensible man would want to stay with one better than himself. Only a fool would flee a good master; thus, Cebes says, the wise should grieve at dying and the foolish rejoice.
Chapter 19
How does Socrates defend his readiness to die against the charge of abandoning good masters?
Socrates says he will defend himself as if in court. He asserts confidently that he will go among gods who are perfectly good masters, and hopes, though without asserting it, to join men better than those here. On this account he is not much troubled but holds good hope that something awaits the dead, better for the good than the evil.
Chapter 19
Section 204 cards
According to Socrates, what do true philosophers aim at throughout life?
Socrates argues that those who rightly practice philosophy aim at nothing other than to die and be dead—that is, to separate the soul from the body. He calls it absurd to be anxious about this their whole life and then grieve when it arrives. Simmias notes the multitude would agree philosophers desire death, though Socrates says they misunderstand in what sense.
Chapter 20
How does Socrates define death in this section?
Socrates defines death as the separation of the soul from the body: for the body to exist apart by itself, separated from the soul, and for the soul to subsist apart by itself, separated from the body. Simmias agrees that death is nothing else than this. This definition grounds the subsequent argument about philosophy as preparation for dying.
Chapter 20
Why does Socrates say the body impedes the pursuit of wisdom?
Socrates argues sight and hearing are not accurate or clear, and other senses are inferior still. When the soul tries to consider anything with the body, it is led astray. The soul reasons best when undisturbed by hearing, sight, pain, or pleasure, retiring within itself and avoiding contact with the body, aiming to grasp what truly is.
Chapter 20
How does Socrates say the soul best approaches knowledge of essences like justice and beauty?
Socrates notes justice, beauty, goodness, magnitude, health, and strength are never grasped by bodily senses. The truest approach uses pure reflection alone, without sight or any other sense mixed in with reasoning, freeing the soul as much as possible from the eyes, ears, and whole body, which disturb it and prevent it from acquiring truth and wisdom.
Chapter 20
Section 213 cards
According to Socrates, why can the soul never fully attain truth while joined to the body?
The body hinders the soul through its necessary support, diseases, and endless longings, desires, fears, and fancies. Socrates says the body constantly intrudes on research, causing trouble and confusion so truth cannot be discerned. He concludes that pure knowledge requires the soul to be separated from the body, contemplating things by itself alone.
Chapter 21
What does Socrates mean by saying true philosophers 'study to die'?
Socrates defines death as the deliverance and separation of the soul from the body. Philosophy, he argues, is the practice of separating the soul from the body and collecting it by itself. So those who pursue philosophy rightly study to die, and death should be least formidable to them, since they hope to attain wisdom in purity only after death.
Chapter 21
How does Socrates use fear of death to distinguish philosophers from lovers of the body?
Socrates says a sufficient proof that a man is not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body is seeing him grieve when about to die. Such a person is probably also a lover of riches and a lover of honor, one or both. The true philosopher, firmly persuaded he will attain wisdom in Hades, goes gladly rather than fearing death.
Chapter 21
Section 224 cards
Why does Socrates call ordinary courage and temperance absurd?
Socrates argues that non-philosophers are brave only through fear of greater evils, so their courage comes from cowardice. Likewise, the intemperate restrain some pleasures only because they fear losing others, being mastered by some pleasures while mastering others. He calls this a kind of temperance through intemperance, which he says is absurd.
Chapter 22
What does Socrates call the only right coin for exchanging virtue?
Socrates argues that true virtue is not a barter of pleasures for pleasures, pains for pains, or fear for fear, like coins. The only right coin is wisdom: fortitude, temperance, and justice are true virtue only when accompanied by wisdom. Separated from wisdom, such virtue is a mere outline, servile, and lacking soundness or truth.
Chapter 22
What does Cebes say many people fear about the soul at death?
Cebes tells Socrates that many will find his claims about the soul hard to believe. They fear that when the soul is separated from the body it no longer exists anywhere, but is destroyed and perishes on the very day the man dies, dispersed and vanishing like breath or smoke. Cebes says proving the soul survives needs strong persuasion and proof.
Chapter 22
What principle does Socrates use to argue the living come from the dead?
Socrates proposes that contraries are produced from contraries: greater from smaller, weaker from stronger, worse from better. He extends this to all things subject to generation, including animals and plants. If living things come only from the dead, souls must exist after death to be born again; otherwise, he says, other arguments are needed.
Chapter 22
Section 234 cards
In Socrates' cycle argument, what is produced from death, and what does this prove?
Socrates argues that just as waking comes from sleeping, life is produced from death, since life and death are contraries. He concludes that souls of the dead must exist somewhere in Hades, from whence they are again produced. Cebes agrees this follows necessarily from what was admitted.
Chapter 23
What would happen if generation went only one way into an opposite, never back?
Socrates argues all things would end in the same state and cease to be produced. If there were falling asleep but no waking, everything would be like Endymion—asleep. If all living things died and never revived, all things would at length be dead and nothing alive.
Chapter 23
How does Cebes connect the theory of reminiscence to the soul's immortality?
Cebes says if learning is nothing but reminiscence, we must have learned in a former time what we now remember. That is impossible unless the soul existed before entering a human form, so the soul appears to be something immortal. Simmias asks him to remind them of the proofs.
Chapter 23
What does Socrates give as an everyday example of reminiscence?
Socrates says lovers who see a lyre, garment, or object their favorite used recognize the object and form an idea of the person. Likewise, seeing Simmias often reminds one of Cebes. He defines reminiscence as knowing one thing and forming an idea of another different thing.
Chapter 23
Section 244 cards
According to Socrates, what must happen for learning to be recollection?
Socrates argues that if we had knowledge of abstract concepts like equality before birth but lost it at birth, then recovering it through the senses is recollection. He states one of two things must follow: either we are all born with this knowledge and retain it through life, or those who learn afterward do nothing but remember, making learning reminiscence.
Chapter 24
How does Socrates distinguish abstract equality from equal logs and stones?
Socrates argues abstract equality is different from equal logs or stones because equal things sometimes appear equal and sometimes not, while abstract equality never appears unequal. Equal objects fall short of equality itself. He concludes we derived knowledge of abstract equality from perceiving equal things that resemble it imperfectly, which requires prior knowledge of equality.
Chapter 24
What role do the senses play in recollecting abstract equality?
Socrates argues we perceive through sight, touch, or other senses that sensible things aim at resembling abstract equality but fall short. Since we must have known equality itself before using the senses to make this comparison, and we had senses from birth, the knowledge must have existed before birth. Thus the senses trigger recollection of forgotten knowledge.
Chapter 24
What does Socrates identify as the cause of forgetting innate knowledge?
Socrates argues that if we had knowledge before birth and did not constantly forget it, we would always retain it through life. He defines oblivion as the loss of knowledge. Since we lose this knowledge at birth, later recovery through the senses is what we call learning, which is properly termed remembering or reminiscence.
Chapter 24
Section 254 cards
What two options does Socrates offer Simmias about how we acquire knowledge?
Socrates asks whether we are born with knowledge or whether we later remember what we formerly knew. Simmias cannot choose between them. Socrates then argues that since we do not possess this knowledge at birth and cannot say when we lose it, the soul must have possessed intelligence before entering a human body.
Chapter 25
What does Socrates say must hold for the argument that souls exist before birth?
Socrates argues that if the beautiful, the good, and similar essences really exist, and we refer sense-perceptions to them as prior and our own, then souls must exist before birth. If those essences do not exist, the discussion is in vain. He insists both stand or fall together.
Chapter 25
What gap does Cebes identify in the argument for the soul's immortality?
Cebes says only half has been demonstrated: that the soul existed before birth. It remains to show it will exist after death and not be dispersed or destroyed when separated from the body. Simmias adds that this popular doubt still stands in the way.
Chapter 25
How does Socrates answer the fear that the soul is dispersed at death?
Socrates says the point was already shown if one connects it with the earlier agreement that everything living is produced from the dead. Since the soul must be born again from death, it must exist after death. He compares the fear to children afraid the wind will blow the soul away.
Chapter 25
Section 263 cards
What happens to the soul when it examines things through the body versus by itself?
Socrates says that when the soul uses the body—sight, hearing, or any sense—to examine something, it is dragged toward things that never remain the same, and it wanders, is confused, and reels as if intoxicated. But when it examines by itself, it approaches the pure, eternal, immortal, and unchangeable, stays with it, and ceases its wandering; this affection of the soul is called wisdom.
Chapter 26
Which attributes does Socrates assign to the soul and to the body?
Socrates concludes the soul is most like the divine, immortal, intelligent, uniform, indissoluble, and always in the same state. The body is most like the human, mortal, unintelligent, multiform, dissoluble, and never in the same state. He adds that nature enjoins the body to serve and obey while the soul rules, and that the divine naturally commands while the mortal obeys.
Chapter 26
Why does Socrates argue the soul is not immediately destroyed at death?
Socrates argues that the invisible soul goes to a place like itself—pure, invisible, to a good and wise God—so it is not immediately dispersed as most men assert. If separated in a pure state, taking nothing of the body because it shunned it and gathered itself within itself, it departs to the divine and immortal and is happy, free from error, ignorance, fears, and passions.
Chapter 26
Section 274 cards
According to Socrates, what happens to a soul that departs polluted by the body?
Socrates says a soul that loved and was bewitched by the corporeal departs impure and is weighed down as earthly and visible. Through dread of the invisible it wanders among monuments and tombs as a shadowy phantom, and is again united to a body, likely to animals matching the habits it cultivated in life.
Chapter 27
What animal forms does Socrates assign to gluttonous and to unjust souls?
Socrates proposes that those given to gluttony, wantonness, and drinking, putting no restraint on themselves, are probably clothed as asses and similar brutes. Those who valued injustice, tyranny, and rapine are clothed as wolves, hawks, and kites. He presents these as probable correspondences between pursuits and rebirth, and Cebes agrees.
Chapter 27
What fate does Socrates say awaits the socially virtuous who lack philosophy?
Socrates calls those most happy who practiced temperance and justice from habit and exercise without philosophy and reflection. They probably migrate into a civilized, peaceable kind of animal such as bees, wasps, or ants, or into the human species again, becoming moderate men. But only the true lover of wisdom who departs perfectly pure may pass into the rank of gods.
Chapter 27
How does philosophy free the soul, and what is the greatest evil it warns against?
Philosophy receives the soul bound and glued to the body as in a prison, exhorts it gently, and shows that sight, hearing, and the other senses deceive. It urges the soul to collect itself and trust only what it understands of real things. The greatest evil is that each pleasure or pain nails the soul to the body, making it judge that thing most real and true.
Chapter 27
Section 282 cards
How does Socrates describe the soul of a true philosopher in life and death?
The author argues that the soul of a philosopher calms the passions, follows reason, and contemplates the true and divine. It lives this way as long as it lives, and at death it goes to a kindred essence, free from human evils. Thus it need not fear being torn apart or dissipated, as long as it strictly attends to these things.
Chapter 28
What is Simmias's objection about the soul as harmony, and what does it imply?
Simmias argues that if the soul is a harmony of bodily qualities, then when the body is relaxed or strained by disease, the soul, being a harmony, must perish first, just as harmony perishes when the lyre's chords are broken. The body may last longer, but the divine harmony would be destroyed before the mortal remains. He asks how Socrates would respond to this reasoning.
Chapter 28
Section 294 cards
What distinction does Cebes make about what has and has not been proven?
Cebes grants that the soul's existence before entering its present form has been elegantly and fully demonstrated. However, he denies that it has been clearly proved that the soul still exists anywhere after death. He also rejects Simmias's claim that the soul is not stronger or more durable than the body, holding instead that the soul far excels such things.
Chapter 29
What is the point of Cebes's aged weaver illustration?
Cebes compares the soul to a weaver and the body to garments he wove and wore. Since the man outlasts many cloaks, one might wrongly conclude he is preserved because the less durable garment has not perished. But the weaver died before his last garment. Likewise, the soul may wear out many bodies and perish before its final one, so the body's survival proves nothing.
Chapter 29
What does Cebes say would follow even if souls are repeatedly reborn?
Cebes argues that even granting souls exist before birth and survive some deaths, reborn many times, this does not prove they never wear out. A soul strong enough to endure repeated births might still exhaust itself and perish in some one of the deaths. Since no one can perceive that dissolution, anyone confident facing death is foolishly confident unless the soul is proven absolutely immortal.
Chapter 29
How does Phaedo describe Socrates's reaction to the young men's objections?
Phaedo says he was never more delighted than with Socrates on that occasion. Socrates listened to the young men's arguments sweetly, affably, and approvingly; quickly perceived how the listeners were affected; and cured and recalled them when they were put to flight and vanquished, encouraging them to continue examining the argument with him.
Chapter 29
Section 304 cards
What does Socrates warn against becoming, and what does he compare it to?
Socrates warns against becoming haters of reasoning, comparing it to hatred of mankind. Both arise from placing too much trust in something without sufficient knowledge, then finding it false. He argues that just as misanthropy comes from expecting too much of people, misology comes from trusting arguments uncritically and then blaming reasoning itself rather than one's own lack of skill.
Chapter 30
According to Socrates, how do extremes and intermediates compare in number?
Socrates argues that extremes are rare and few, while intermediates are abundant and numerous. He illustrates with things very large or very small, swift or slow, beautiful or ugly, white or black. He extends this to wickedness, suggesting that if a contest in wickedness were proposed, few would be found pre-eminent. He uses this to show that most people are neither wholly good nor wholly bad.
Chapter 30
How does Socrates distinguish himself from a wrangler in this discussion?
Socrates says wranglers care nothing for the subject of discussion but only want their own claims to appear true to those present. He differs only in this respect: he is not anxious to make what he says appear true to others except incidentally, but that it may appear certainly true to himself. He urges Simmias and Cebes to pay little attention to Socrates and much more to the truth.
Chapter 30
What doubts do Simmias and Cebes hold about the soul's immortality?
Simmias fears that the soul, though more divine and beautiful than the body, may perish before it, as being a species of harmony. Cebes grants that the soul is more durable than the body but argues it is uncertain whether, after wearing out many bodies repeatedly, the soul does not itself perish on leaving the last body, making death the destruction of the soul, since the body never ceases decaying.
Chapter 30
Section 314 cards
What contradiction does Socrates find between the harmony theory and recollection?
Socrates argues that if the soul is a harmony compounded from bodily parts, it cannot exist before those parts. But the recollection argument holds that the soul existed before entering the body. Since harmony comes last and perishes first, the two claims conflict. Simmias concedes they do not accord and abandons the harmony theory.
Chapter 31
Why does Simmias prefer the recollection argument over the harmony theory?
Simmias says the harmony theory came to him through mere probability and speciousness, the source of most men's opinions. He notes that arguments from probabilities are idle and deceptive in geometry and other subjects unless one is guarded. The recollection argument, by contrast, rests on a satisfactory hypothesis, so he is fully convinced by it.
Chapter 31
What does Socrates argue about harmony leading or following its parts?
Socrates argues that harmony cannot lead or oppose the things of which it is composed; it must follow them. A harmony cannot be moved or sound contrary to its parts. Since the soul often opposes bodily desires, such as restraining thirst or hunger, the soul cannot be a harmony, which by nature only follows its components.
Chapter 31
What absurd result follows if the soul is harmony and virtue is harmony?
Socrates argues that if the soul is harmony, no soul is more or less a soul than another, so all souls are equally harmonized. Then no soul could partake of vice, since harmony cannot partake of discord. All souls of all animals would be equally good. Simmias agrees this result is absurd, refuting the harmony hypothesis.
Chapter 31
Section 324 cards
Why does Socrates reject the claim that the soul is a harmony?
Socrates argues that if the soul were a harmony it would follow the tensions and affections of its bodily parts and never govern them. But the soul rules, resists, and punishes the body's desires, angers, and fears, as when Ulysses chides his own heart in Homer. So the soul is more divine than harmony, and neither Homer nor their own prior agreement supports the harmony view.
Chapter 32
What does Cebes say the pre-existence arguments actually prove?
Cebes says proving the soul is strong, divine, and existed long before birth does not establish immortality. It may only show the soul is durable and long-lived, with its entry into a human body being the start of its destruction, like a disease, ending in death. So one who cannot prove immortality has reason to fear death.
Chapter 32
What happened to Socrates when he pursued natural philosophy as a young man?
Socrates says he was eager for the wisdom called the history of nature, wanting to know the causes of generation, corruption, and existence. He investigated whether heat and cold produce animals, whether blood, air, fire, or the brain causes thought, and how knowledge arises. He became so unskillful that he unlearned things he thought he knew, including why a man grows from eating and drinking.
Chapter 32
What example of mistaken causation does Socrates give about growth?
Socrates recalls thinking growth was obvious: from food, flesh is added to flesh and bone to bone, so a small bulk becomes large and a little man becomes big. He later presents this as a belief he held before his confusion, and asks Cebes whether it seems correct, to which Cebes answers that it does.
Chapter 32
Section 334 cards
Why was Socrates initially delighted by Anaxagoras's book?
Socrates was delighted because Anaxagoras claimed that intelligence (mind) orders and is the cause of all things. He hoped this would explain why each thing is as it is by showing it is best for it to be so, and that the same inquirer would know both best and worst. He eagerly read the books hoping to learn the best and worst.
Chapter 33
Why was Socrates disappointed when he read Anaxagoras's works?
Socrates was thrown down from his hope when he found Anaxagoras made no use of intelligence, assigning causes instead to air, ether, water, and other absurd things. He compared this to explaining Socrates's sitting by bones and sinews rather than by his judgment that it was better and more just to submit to the city's sentence.
Chapter 33
What distinction does Socrates draw between real causes and necessary conditions?
Socrates argues the real cause is the choice of what is best, while bones, sinews, voice, and air are only things without which a cause could not be a cause. He says calling these causes is absurd, since his bones would long ago be in Megara or Boeotia were it not for his judgment that submitting to the city was more just and honorable.
Chapter 33
What does Socrates mean by setting out on a 'second voyage' in search of the cause?
After failing to find the teleological cause he wanted in Anaxagoras, and being unable to discover it himself or learn it from another, Socrates proposes a second voyage—a new method of inquiry. He offers to show Cebes how he set out on this alternative search for the cause, having abandoned his original hopes.
Chapter 33
Section 353 cards
How does Socrates distinguish 'things that have contraries' from the contraries themselves?
Socrates says earlier discussion concerned things that have contraries, called by the names of those contraries, and that a contrary is produced from a contrary. Now he speaks of the contraries themselves, present in things, and argues these never admit production from each other. He uses this to reconcile the apparent contradiction raised by an unnamed listener.
Chapter 35
What happens to snow when heat approaches, according to Socrates?
Snow, while remaining snow, can never admit heat and continue as snow and hot. On heat's approach it must either withdraw or perish. Likewise fire, when cold approaches, must depart or perish rather than endure as fire and cold. Socrates uses this to illustrate that contraries do not admit their opposites.
Chapter 35
What does Socrates mean by things that always possess a contrary?
Beyond contraries rejecting each other, Socrates notes some things are not themselves contrary to an idea yet always possess a contrary: three, five, and the odd half of number are always odd though not the same as oddness; two and four always even. Such things never admit the contrary idea but perish or depart instead.
Chapter 35
Section 364 cards
According to Socrates, what distinguishes things like three from mere contraries?
Socrates argues that besides contraries refusing each other, some things refuse a contrary without being contrary to it: three is not contrary to the even, yet never admits it, because it always brings the odd with it. Similarly two brings oddness, and fire brings heat to whatever it occupies.
Chapter 36
How does Socrates' 'more elegant' answer about heat differ from the 'safe but unlearned' one?
Asked what makes a body hot, the safe answer is heat itself; the more elegant answer, from the theory just stated, is fire. Likewise fever, not disease, makes the body diseased, and unity, not unevenness, makes number odd. The elegant answer names the thing that brings the contrary with it.
Chapter 36
How does Socrates argue the soul is immortal?
The soul always brings life to whatever it occupies, and death is the contrary of life. Since the soul will never admit the contrary of what it brings, it never admits death; what does not admit death is called immortal. Socrates concludes the soul is immortal and, if the immortal is imperishable, imperishable too.
Chapter 36
What objection does Socrates raise about the odd being destroyed when the even approaches?
Someone might object that although the odd cannot become even, the odd could be destroyed and the even take its place. Socrates says we cannot refute this, since the odd is not imperishable. The argument only works for the soul if the immortal is granted to be imperishable as well.
Chapter 36
Section 374 cards
According to Socrates, why does the soul need care beyond this life?
Socrates argues that since the soul is immortal, it requires care not only during life but for all time. If death ended everything, the wicked would gain by escaping body and vice together; but because the soul is immortal, it has no refuge from evils except becoming as good and wise as possible. The soul carries only its discipline and education to Hades.
Chapter 37
How does Socrates describe the soul that clings to the body at death?
Socrates says the soul that through passion clings to the body flutters about it and its visible place for a long time, then after vehement resistance and great suffering is forcibly and with difficulty led away by its appointed demon. Arriving impure, having committed unrighteous murders or similar deeds, it is shunned by all and wanders helplessly until carried to a suitable abode.
Chapter 37
What is Socrates' analogy for our ignorance of the true earth?
Socrates compares us to a person dwelling at the bottom of the sea who thinks the sea is the heavens, seeing sun and stars dimly through water, and never reaching the surface through sloth and weakness. Likewise we dwell in a hollow of the earth, call the air heaven, and cannot reach the summit of the air to see the true heaven, true light, and true earth.
Chapter 37
What does Socrates say about the shape and position of the earth?
Socrates says he is persuaded that the earth is spherical and in the middle of the heavens. It needs no air or similar force to keep it from falling; rather, the similarity of the heavens on every side and the earth's own equilibrium support it, since a thing equally pressed on all sides in the middle cannot incline more or less but remains unmoved.
Chapter 37
Section 384 cards
How does Socrates describe the appearance of the true earth seen from above?
Socrates says the earth, surveyed from above, is said to resemble balls covered with twelve variegated pieces of leather, colored purple, gold, white whiter than chalk or snow, and other hues more numerous and beautiful than any seen here. The colors painters use are mere copies. Its hollows, filled with water and air, show a shining color, so a continually varied aspect presents itself.
Chapter 38
How do the inhabitants of the true earth differ from us in health and senses?
Socrates says their seasons are so tempered that they are free from disease and live much longer than people here. They surpass us in sight, hearing, smell, and similar faculties as much as air excels water and ether excels air in purity. They have abodes and temples where gods really dwell, with voices, oracles, and sensible visions of the gods.
Chapter 38
What causes the oscillation of streams into and out of Tartarus?
Socrates says one chasm, called Tartarus, is exceedingly large and perforated through the entire earth; all rivers flow into it and out again. Because this liquid has neither bottom nor base, it oscillates and fluctuates up and down, and the air and wind around it do the same, like breath drawn in and out, producing vehement winds as it enters and exits.
Chapter 38
What are the four great rivers Socrates names, and what is said of Acheron?
Socrates names Ocean, largest and flowing most outwardly around the earth; Acheron, flowing opposite and contrary, passing under the earth to the Acherusian lake where the souls of most who die arrive, remaining destined periods before being sent into generations of animals; Pyriphlegethon, fiery and muddy; and Cocytus, the Stygian river. Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus discharge into Tartarus opposite each other.
Chapter 38
Section 403 cards
Why does Socrates refuse Crito's suggestion to delay drinking the poison?
Crito urges delay, noting the sun is still on the mountains and others drank late after enjoying supper and love. Socrates replies that those men act with reason because they think they gain something, but he would gain nothing by waiting except to seem ridiculous to himself for clinging to life when none remains. He tells Crito to obey and not resist.
Chapter 40
What instructions does the poison administrator give Socrates?
The man brings the poison ready pounded in a cup and tells Socrates to do nothing else than walk about after drinking until heaviness comes into his legs, then lie down, saying this will let it do its purpose. Socrates receives the cup cheerfully, without trembling or changing color, and asks whether it is lawful to make a libation to a god.
Chapter 40
What are Socrates' last words, and what does Crito do afterward?
After the coldness reaches his lower belly, Socrates uncovers himself and says his last words: 'Crito, we owe a cock to Aesculapius; pay it, therefore; and do not neglect it.' Crito promises it shall be done and asks if he has anything else to say, but Socrates gives no reply; soon after a convulsive movement occurs, the man covers him, and Crito closes his mouth and eyes.
Chapter 40
Source and licence
Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #13726 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-31. Cards reviewed 2026-10-31.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
Turn your own notes into cards
Upload a PDF, Word, or text file and get question-and-answer cards for closed-notes practice. Five cards are free, no signup.