Socrates Phaedo

In the Phaedo, Socrates explains, “Aren’t there, in the case of all contraries, since they come in pairs, something like two becomings between them, from one to the other, and, again, from the other back to the first” (71b). Socrates argues that everything comes from its opposite, and that nothing can die without being alive, while nothing can be alive without having being dead before. This statement is partially true in that some things do come from their opposites, and that everything has to be alive before it is dead. On the other hand, Socrates’ statement is partially false because everything does not need to be dead before it is alive.

While there are certainly many things in this world that come from their opposite, there are also many things that do not come from their opposite. For instance, a person does not need to hate someone before they love them, or love someone before they hate them. This can be true some of the time, but it is not necessary to have love or hate for an individual before one can feel the opposite, because emotions are something that can be acquired out of nowhere and are incurred through one’s actions, attitudes, perceptions, and thoughts. Furthermore, there are times when someone can start playing a sport and immediately be good at it. In this sense a person does not have to be bad at the sport before they are good at it because one can just have natural talent. While a person, particularly a young child, can start out being bad at a sport because they do not understand how to play it, have never attempted to use that particular set of skills before, or overall can not get the main idea of how to be good at it, this does not happen all the time. Similarly, a person does not need to be good at a sport before they are bad at it. In fact, it is quite hard to become bad at a sport after one is good at it because talent is not something that is generally lost over time. Being bad at something does not imply that one was previously good at it; this would just be nonsense. Over time, a person can lose their abilities to play a sport and not be able to compete at the same high level that was once possible, due to old age or injuries. These inabilities do not result from once having been good at the sport; they are just a part of life and becoming older. In addition, many times people can start out being bad at a sport and continue to remain bad at it throughout their entire lives, from the time they are young until the time they are old, without ever having been good at it at any point in between, in the beginning or at the end of their lives. Speaking of being old, it is correct in saying that a person must be young before they are old, but it is impossible for one to be old before they are young. In a general perspective, a person who is young is someone who has not been living for very long. Therefore, it would not make sense to say that a young person had once been living for a long time, which defines someone as being old. That would be completely illogical.

In the Phaedo, Socrates is convinced that everything must come from their opposite, which down the road leads to him explaining that, “if in fact there is such a thing as returning to life, wouldn’t this coming to be – this returning to life – be from the dead and into the living?” (72a). For Socrates to say that one has to be alive before they are dead would basically be the same as defining the word dead, which means no longer living. Clearly, being dead relates to not having any more life inside, or having nothing left to go on in order to continue running or operating, as in the case of an engine. An engine is considered to be dead when it can not start up due to its battery running out, some specific malfunction inside of it, or just not properly working anymore. Consequently, if an engine is officially dead, it must have once been alive and working for it to now be regarded as dead. In the case that the engine was not working from the very beginning, it would just be considered a faulty engine and could have never be labeled at one time as being alive. When characterizing anyone or anything as dead, a person must have the prior knowledge of it having life beforehand. In essence, no living person can start out as being dead; they must first be alive. Accordingly, nothing that is alive in the world is created dead, but instead every living being in the world when created is granted life. To die reiterates the fact of having lost all life and not being able to function anymore, after having once been alive. As a result, Socrates’ assertion that everything must be alive before it is dead is true.

On the contrary, Socrates is not correct in saying that nothing can be alive without having being dead beforehand. This theory stated by Socrates leads one to assume that he believes in reincarnation, which is commonly