Key Arguments

• He recalls ‘an ancient doctrine which affirms that they go from hence into the other world, and returning hither, are born again from the dead,’ framing his argument as continuity with traditional teaching.
• He states a general metaphysical principle: ‘all things which have opposites’—such as good and evil, just and unjust, greater and less, stronger and weaker—‘are generated out of their opposites.’
• He elaborates that where there are opposites there are ‘two intermediate processes which are ever going on, from one to the other opposite, and back again’ (e.g., increase/diminution, division/composition, cooling/heating).
• He identifies life and death as a pair of opposites: when asked for the opposite of life, Cebes answers ‘Death,’ and Socrates asks whether, like other opposites, they are generated from one another and have intermediate processes.
• Analyzing the pair sleep/waking as an example, he shows that ‘out of sleeping waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping; and the process of generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the other waking up,’ then asks Cebes to parallel this with life/death.
• Cebes agrees that ‘death’ is generated from the living and, when pressed, that the living must be generated ‘from the dead,’ so that ‘the living, whether things or persons, are generated from the dead.’
• From this he infers that ‘our souls exist in the world below,’ since for the living to arise from the dead there must be a state in which souls exist in that other world prior to rebirth.
• He emphasizes that dying is one visible process in this pair, so to avoid making ‘nature walk on one leg only’ we must posit a corresponding ‘return to life’—‘the birth of the dead into the world of the living.’
• Thus he concludes that ‘the living come from the dead, just as the dead come from the living,’ and that this ‘affords a most certain proof that the souls of the dead exist in some place out of which they come again.’

Source Quotes

Suppose we consider the question whether the souls of men after death are or are not in the world below. There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which affirms that they go from hence into the other world, and returning hither, are born again from the dead. Now if it be true that the living come from the dead, then our souls must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they have been born again?

Then let us consider the whole question, not in relation to man only, but in relation to animals generally, and to plants, and to everything of which there is generation, and the proof will be easier. Are not all things which have opposites generated out of their opposites? I mean such things as good and evil, just and unjust—and there are innumerable other opposites which are generated out of opposites.

Yes. And in this universal opposition of all things, are there not also two intermediate processes which are ever going on, from one to the other opposite, and back again; where there is a greater and a less there is also an intermediate process of increase and diminution, and that which grows is said to wax, and that which decays to wane? Yes, he said.

Very true, he replied. Well, and is there not an opposite of life, as sleep is the opposite of waking? True, he said.

One of them I term sleep, the other waking. The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and out of sleeping waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping; and the process of generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the other waking up. Do you agree?

Yes. What is generated from the living? The dead. And what from the dead? I can only say in answer—the living. Then the living, whether things or persons, Cebes, are generated from the dead?

I can only say in answer—the living. Then the living, whether things or persons, Cebes, are generated from the dead? That is clear, he replied. Then the inference is that our souls exist in the world below? That is true.

And shall we suppose nature to walk on one leg only? Must we not rather assign to death some corresponding process of generation? Certainly, he replied. And what is that process? Return to life. And return to life, if there be such a thing, is the birth of the dead into the world of the living?

Quite true. Then here is a new way by which we arrive at the conclusion that the living come from the dead, just as the dead come from the living; and this, if true, affords a most certain proof that the souls of the dead exist in some place out of which they come again. Yes, Socrates, he said; the conclusion seems to flow necessarily out of our previous admissions.

Key Concepts

• There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which affirms that they go from hence into the other world, and returning hither, are born again from the dead.
• Are not all things which have opposites generated out of their opposites?
• in this universal opposition of all things, are there not also two intermediate processes which are ever going on, from one to the other opposite, and back again;
• Well, and is there not an opposite of life, as sleep is the opposite of waking?
• The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and out of sleeping waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping; and the process of generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the other waking up.
• What is generated from the living? The dead. And what from the dead? I can only say in answer—the living.
• Then the living, whether things or persons, Cebes, are generated from the dead? That is clear, he replied. Then the inference is that our souls exist in the world below?
• Must we not rather assign to death some corresponding process of generation? Certainly, he replied. And what is that process? Return to life.
• this, if true, affords a most certain proof that the souls of the dead exist in some place out of which they come again.

Context

In response to Cebes’ worry that the soul might vanish at death, Socrates begins his first proof for immortality—the cyclical or opposites argument—using the general generation of opposites to argue for a cycle between life and death and the existence of souls in the underworld.