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A good portion of the Phaedo is devoted to presenting arguments for the immortality of the soul.  It should be clear why Socrates is concerned to do this: he is trying to comfort his friends who are worried that after he drinks the hemlock, he will no longer exist. If one is convinced of the immortality of the soul, then death is not such a bad thing.

There are two arguments in particular that I’d like you to think about in preparation for Thursday’s class.

The first is the argument from 70c-72a. I call this the “Argument from Opposites”.  Try to set out that argument as clearly as you can, and think about whether it is a convincing one. If not, indicate why not.  It’s actually, a sorry little argument, but figuring out exactly what its flaws are is an excellent exercise.

The second is the “Argument from Recollection” from 72e-77a.  Try to set this argument out as clearly as you can, and think about whether it is a convincing one. What is particularly interesting about this argument is that it makes use of the Theory of Recollection, which we saw in the Meno.  But the version we saw in the Meno looks very different from the version that is presented to us in the Phaedo. Think about the ways in which the two theories are different, and try to come up with three differences between them.