Page 15 - GALIET PLATO´S PHAEDO: Reason and Idea Plato IV

i. However, one senses things as soon as born (75b)
ii. Therefore, one possessed knowledge of Equality before birth (75c)
The third argument (78b-84b) is the one of simplicity. It consists in affirming that all simple things exist forever, and that only composite things dissolve and perish. Given that the soul is simple, it must exist to be and to be immortal. This argument enables Plato to maintain the doctrine of purification and transmigration of souls until such a time the souls recover their primordial purity and simplicity.
The fourth argument (102a-107b) is the one of the conception of the Forms or Ideas as true causes.21 It consists in affirming that given that good things exist because Goodness exists and that true things exist because Truth exists, living things exist because Life exists. This life, principle of all living things, is moved by and resides in the soul,22 which is, therefore, immortal. This is based on Plato’s notion that whatever brings along some opposite into what it occupies will not
21 Socrates claims not to understand sophistic causes. He finds them too confusing and clings to the notion that the beautiful is beautiful simply because it shares in the Beautiful. That is, ‘all beautiful things are beautiful by the Beautiful’ (100d) or “through Beauty beautiful things are made beautiful.” He finds this to be the safest answer by which he shall never err. In seeking the causes of things, he claims that things came to be “by sharing in the particular reality in which it shares.” As an example, he says that Two came to be because it shares in Twoness just as one shares in Oneness. (101c).
22 The soul is what brings life to what it occupies. Phaedo. 105d
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