Phaedo (75-76)

Phaedo. Then we must have had knowledge of equality before the time when we first saw equal things and thought, ‘All these things are aiming to be like equality but fall short.’ That is true. And we agree, also, that we have not gained knowledge of it, and that it is impossible to gain this knowledge, except by sight or touch or some other of the senses? I consider that all the senses are alike. Yes, Socrates, they are all alike, for the purposes of our argument. Then it is through the senses that we must learn that all sensible objects strive after absolute equality and fall short of it. Is that our view? Yes. Then before we began to see or hear or use the other senses we must somewhere have gained a knowledge of abstract or absolute equality, if we were to compare with it the equals which we perceive by the senses, and see that all such things yearn to be like abstract equality but fall short of it. That follows necessarily from what we have said before, Socrates. And we saw and heard and had the other senses as soon as we were born? Certainly. But, we say, we must have acquired a knowledge of equality before we had these senses? Yes. Then it appears that we must have acquired it before we were born. It does. Now if we had acquired that knowledge before we were born, and were born with it, we knew before we were born and at the moment of birth not only the equal and the greater and the less, but all such abstractions? For our present argument is no more concerned with the equal than with absolute beauty and the absolute good and the just and the holy, and, in short, with all those things which we stamp with the seal of absolute in our dialectic process of questions and answers; so that we must necessarily have acquired knowledge of all these before our birth. That is true. And if after acquiring it we have not, in each case, forgotten it, we must always be born knowing these things, and must know them throughout our life; for to know is to have acquired knowledge and to have retained it without losing it, and the loss of knowledge is just what we mean when we speak of forgetting, is it not, Simmias? Certainly, Socrates, said he. But, I suppose, if we acquired knowledge before we were born and lost it at birth, but afterwards by the use of our senses regained the knowledge which we had previously possessed, would not the process which we call learning really be recovering knowledge which is our own? And should we be right in calling this recollection? Assuredly.

Phaedo. For we found that it is possible, on perceiving a thing by the sight or the hearing or any other sense, to call to mind from that perception another thing which had been forgotten, which was associated with the thing perceived, whether like it or unlike it; so that, as I said, one of two things is true, either we are all born knowing these things and know them all our lives, or afterwards, those who are said to learn merely remember, and learning would then be recollection. That is certainly true, Socrates. Which then do you choose, Simmias? Were we born with the knowledge, or do we recollect afterwards things of which we had acquired knowledge before our birth? I cannot choose at this moment, Socrates. How about this question? You can choose and you have some opinion about it: When a man knows, can he give an account of what he knows or not? Certainly he can, Socrates. And do you think that everybody can give an account of the matters about which we have just been talking? I wish they might, said Simmias; but on the contrary I fear that tomorrow, at this time, there will be no longer any man living who is able to do so properly. Then, Simmias, you do not think all men know these things? By no means. Then they recollect the things they once learned? Necessarily. When did our souls acquire the knowledge of them? Surely not after we were born as human beings. Certainly not. Then previously. Yes. Then, Simmias, the souls existed previously, before they were in human form, apart from bodies, and they had intelligence. Unless, Socrates, we acquire these ideas at the moment of birth; for that time still remains. Very well, my friend. But at what other time do we lose them? For we are surely not born with them, as we just now agreed. Do we lose them at the moment when we receive them, or have you some other time to suggest? None whatever, Socrates. I did not notice that I was talking nonsense. Then, Simmias, said he, is this the state of the case? If, as we are always saying, the beautiful exists, and the good, and every essence of that kind, and if we refer all our sensations to these, which we find existed previously and are now ours, and compare our sensations with these, is it not a necessary inference that just as these abstractions exist, so our souls existed before we were born; and if these abstractions do not exist, our argument is of no force? Is this the case, and is it equally certain that provided these things exist our souls also existed before we were born, and that if these do not exist, neither did our souls?