Phaedo. The argument seems to me to be just where it was, and to be still open to the objection I made before.
For I do not deny that it has
been very cleverly, and, if I may say so, conclusively shown that the soul
existed before it entered into this bodily form, but it does not seem to me
proved that it will still exist when we are dead. I do not agree with Simmias’
objection, that the soul is not stronger and more lasting than the body, for I
think it is far superior in all such respects.
Why then,
the argument might
say, do you still disbelieve, when you see that after a man dies
the weaker part still exists? Do you not think the
stronger part must necessarily be preserved during the same length of time?
Now
see if my reply to this has any sense. I think I may, like Simmias, best express
myself in a figure. It seems to me that it is much as if one should say about an
old weaver who had died, that the man had not perished but was safe and sound
somewhere, and should offer as a proof of this the fact that the cloak which the
man had woven and used to wear was still whole and had not perished. Then if
anyone did not believe him, he would ask
which lasts longer, a man or a cloak that is in use and wear, and when the
answer was given that a man lasts much longer, he would think it had been proved
beyond a doubt that the man was safe, because that which was less lasting had
not perished.But I do not think he is
right, Simmias, and I ask you especially to notice what I say. Anyone can
understand that a man who says this is talking nonsense. For the weaver in
question wove and wore out many such cloaks and
lasted longer than they, though they were many, but
perished, I suppose, before the last one. Yet a man is not feebler or weaker
than a cloak on that account at all. And I think the same figure would apply to
the soul and the body and it would be quite appropriate to say in like manner
about them, that the soul lasts a long time, but the body lasts a shorter time
and is weaker. And, one might go on to say that each soul wears out many bodies,
especially if the man lives many years. For if the body is constantly changing
and being destroyed while the man still lives,
and the soul is always weaving anew that which wears out, then when the soul
perishes it must necessarily have on its last garment, and this only will
survive it, and when the soul has perished, then the body will at once show its
natural weakness and will quickly disappear in decay.