The answer lies in the Phaedo , not much after the passage on suicide, to which you referred. The issue of suicide arises in the context of the question, put to Socrates, why he seemed to favor death, rather than struggling to avoid it. And a part of his answer was, that the knowledge which the philosopher seeks all his life, seems to await him after death. Because the body is mainly an obstruction to true knowledge. Knowledge is, then, not merely possible after death. It seems to be more possible after death than during life. At least so for someone, like a philosopher, who has been preparing himself during life... It has been proved to us by experience that if we would have pure knowledge of anything we must be quit of the body—the soul in herself must behold things in themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers, not while we