Page 12 - GALIET PLATO´S PHAEDO: Reason and Idea Plato IV

that have opposites are engendered from their opposites. Some of the examples given are the smaller and larger, weaker and stronger, worse and better, the unjust and just, death and life.18 Given that life is opposed to death, it has to be engendered by its opposite. The objection against Plato’s argument 3⁄4 that there can be life, death brought about by life and therefore the continuation of death 3⁄4 is answered by Plato saying that if such was the case, it would stop the motions of nature given that generation cannot solely continue linearly.
The second argument (72e-77c) is concerned with reminiscence. It consists in affirming that given that we possess certain knowledge that cannot solely come from sensible perception 3⁄4 such as the knowledge of the equality of two things, which cannot be abstracted from experience (and in general the knowledge of the Forms), because there are never two sensible things that are alike 3⁄4 it is necessary to recognize that such knowledge proceeds from the reminiscence that the soul has of a former life in which it was not imprisoned in the body. That is, one can only recollect what one knew and learned before. However, if the soul has this constitution, the soul is a pure form, that is, an immortal entity. In logical, formal terms, Plato’s Theory of Recollection or Reminiscence can be generally expressed as follows:
18 Plato. Phaedo 70a-71b
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