Phaedo. And if it becomes
smaller,
it
must have been greater and then have become smaller?
That is true,
said he.And the weaker is generated from the stronger, and the
slower from the quicker?
Certainly.
And the
worse from the better and the more just from the more unjust?
Of course.
Then,
said he, we have this fact sufficiently
established, that all things are generated in this way, opposites from
opposites?
Certainly.
Now then, is
there between all these pairs of opposites what may be called
two kinds of generation, from one to the other and back
again from the other to the first? Between a larger thing and a smaller thing
there is increment and diminution and we call one increasing and the other
decreasing, do we not?
Yes,
said he.And similarly analyzing and
combining, and cooling and heating, and all opposites in the same way. Even if
we do not in every case have the words to express it, yet in fact is it not
always inevitable that there is a process of generation from each to the
other?
Certainly,
said
he.
Well then,
said Socrates,
is there anything that is the opposite of living, as being awake is the
opposite of sleeping?
Certainly,
said Cebes.What?
Being
dead,
said he.Then these two are
generated from each other, and as they are two, so the processes between them
are two; is it not so?
Of
course.
Now,
said
Socrates, I will tell about one of the two pairs of which I just spoke to
you and its intermediate processes; and do you tell me about the other. I say
one term is sleeping and the other is being awake, and being awake is generated
from sleeping, and sleeping from being awake,
and the processes of generation are, in the latter case, falling asleep, and
in the former, waking up. Do you agree, or not?
Certainly.
Now do you,
said he, tell me in this way about life and
death. Do you not say that living is the opposite of being
dead?
I do.
And that they are generated one from the
other?
Yes.
Now what is it which is generated from the
living?
The dead,
said
he.And what,
said Socrates,
from the dead?
I can say only
one thing—the living.
From the
dead, then, Cebes, the living, both things and persons,
are generated?
Evidently,
said he.Then,
said Socrates, our souls exist in the other
world.
So it
seems.
And of the two processes
of generation between these two, the one is plain to be seen; for surely dying
is plain to be seen, is it not?
Certainly,
said he.Well
then,
said Socrates, what shall we do next? Shall we deny the
opposite process, and shall nature be one-sided in this instance? Or must we
grant that there is some process of generation the opposite of
dying?
Certainly we must,
said he.What is this process?
Coming to life again.