Phaedo Examines Wether the Human Soul Is Immortal or Not
Socrates believes that the soul is more enduring than the body. One way he establishes this argument is on the basis all things that come to be and have an opposite "must necessarily come to be from their opposite and from nowhere else" (70e). For example, if someone becomes awake, then this person is asleep before he or she wakes. Socrates also uses the example of something that becomes smaller must have been larger in order to become smaller. Socrates says, "Then if something smaller comes to be, it will come from something larger before, which became smaller?" (71a). Then, Socrates takes into account that life and death are opposites. He uses the belief that dying is going from living to being dead. Therefore, being alive comes from being dead since they are opposites as well. If this is true, then one existed before birth. The body did not exist before birth, so the body does not only compromise a person. The soul does, too, and it is separate from the body. Since a person is comprised of the body and the soul, the soul apparently exists before birth. Also, since the body obviously dies at death, then the soul exists after...
Cited: Plato. "Phaedo." Five Dialogues. Translated by Gube, G. Revised by Cooper, J. Hackett Publishing Co. Indianapolis, IN. 2002. 2nd Edition. 93-154.
Please join StudyMode to read the full document