SOCRATES ’ NEW AITIA: CAUSAL AND METAPHYSICAL EXPLANATIONS IN PLATO’S PHAEDO

the section of the Phaedo that recounts Socrates ’ intellectual ‘au-tobiography ’ and culminates in his turn to the theory of Forms (95 e–102 b) has long been considered a key passage for under-standing Plato’s mature philosophy. Besides o·ering explicit com-mentary on various themes of Presocratic thought, it is one of the few Platonic texts purporting to explain some of the considerations that motivate the theory of Forms. Yet as to what precisely is going on in the passage, there has been considerable disagreement. And although scholarly dispute is often a source of interpretative riches, the lack of agreement here extends, quite remarkably, even to the broadest outlines of an adequate in-terpretation. The central di¶culty concerns the nature of the new aitia—the new mode of explanation—that Socrates advances start-ing at 100 b of the dialogue.1 Some interpreters consider Socrates ã Ravi Sharma 2009 An earlier version of this paper was discussed at the PhiladelphiaAncient Philosophy Colloquium. I thank members of the Colloquium, as well as Max Rosenkrantz and Aryeh Kosman, both of whom read a draft of the paper. Thanks are also due to Brad Inwood for his thoughtful comments on the penultimate version. 1 No single English expression adequately captures the sense of the word α<τα. “Cause ” is far too narrow to cover its range of uses and, I shall argue, is inappro-priate for the present passage. “Explanation ” and “mode of explanation ” are less misleading, and I shall use them wherever I venture to translate the word. Some have argued that “explanation ” wrongly encourages one to think of an α<τα as a linguistic or propositional item, but I agree with Barnes in thinking that incorrec