Key Arguments

• Socrates observes that when soul and body are united, ‘nature orders the soul to rule and govern, and the body to obey and serve,’ and asks which of these functions is closer to the divine versus the mortal.
• He elicits agreement that ‘the divine’ is ‘that which naturally orders and rules, and the mortal… that which is subject and servant,’ and that the soul resembles the former while the body resembles the latter.
• From this he infers that ‘the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable,’ while ‘the body is in the very likeness of the human, and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform, and dissoluble, and changeable.’
• He reinforces the contrast by noting that even the visible body, which we would expect to decompose quickly, can remain for a long time, especially when embalmed, suggesting that the invisible soul, which is by nature closer to the indissoluble, is still less likely to be destroyed at once.

Source Quotes

Yes. Yet once more consider the matter in another light: When the soul and the body are united, then nature orders the soul to rule and govern, and the body to obey and serve. Now which of these two functions is akin to the divine? and which to the mortal?

Now which of these two functions is akin to the divine? and which to the mortal? Does not the divine appear to you to be that which naturally orders and rules, and the mortal to be that which is subject and servant? True.

The soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal—there can be no doubt of that, Socrates. Then reflect, Cebes: of all which has been said is not this the conclusion?—that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable; and that the body is in the very likeness of the human, and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform, and dissoluble, and changeable. Can this, my dear Cebes, be denied?

It cannot. But if it be true, then is not the body liable to speedy dissolution? and is not the soul almost or altogether indissoluble? Certainly.

Key Concepts

• When the soul and the body are united, then nature orders the soul to rule and govern, and the body to obey and serve.
• Does not the divine appear to you to be that which naturally orders and rules, and the mortal to be that which is subject and servant?
• the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable
• the body is in the very likeness of the human, and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform, and dissoluble, and changeable.
• is not the body liable to speedy dissolution? and is not the soul almost or altogether indissoluble?

Context

Continuation and consolidation of the Affinity Argument: after distinguishing seen/unchanging and soul/body, Socrates now emphasizes the soul’s ruling function and likeness to the divine to argue for its immortality and near-indissolubility.