PHAEDO- IS LEARNING EQUAL TO RECOLLECTION?

; DOES SOUL EXIST BEFORE

BIRTH?

Before elaborating on the arguments given in the passage, we’ll give a brief disclaimer of what

has previously been said in the debate, and that’s valuable for the one we’re analysing. In short,

Socrates convinced Cebes and Simmias that the soul is immortal (more specifically, that the soul

continues to exist after corporal death), and Cebes himself concluded “… coming to life again in

truth exists, the living come to be from the dead, and the souls of the dead exist.”

Cebes mentions “a theory”, frequently used by Socrates, according to which learning is

recollection. According to Cebes, this theory is frequently used as an argument for the soul’s

immortality. Simmias contested this, after which Socrates laid out his proofs. The initial

statement is as follows: Learning is no other than recollection. What is being recollected must

have been learnt in some earlier point in time. For this to be possible, the soul must have existed

before being embodied. The soul is therefore independent of the body and, unlike it, immortal.