The idea that the soul is immortal is one that Plato argues in many of his writings. The work that is primarily concerned with this subject matter is the Phaedo and in it contains three arguments that attempt to provide reasoning for the immortality of the soul. Other arguments can be found in the Meno, Phaedrus and the Republic, and other works such as Laws and the Timaeus assert the immortality of the soul without argument. The structure and functions of the soul which Plato explains in other works, such as it being tripartite, or a charioteer, need not be discussed here, as this aspect of the soul's make up does not really influence its immortality. Plato's reasoning will be examined book by book and each proof's effectiveness evaluated as an individual argument.

One of the first instances of an argument in favour of the soul's immortality comes in one of the Socratic Dialogues, the Meno. The question of immortality arises because Meno, an aristocrat from Thessaly, is about to embark on

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· THE LAST DAYS OF SOCRATES, Plato, translated by H. Tredennick, Penguin 1993

The final argument for the soul's immortality amongst this mixed bag of proofs is the unquestionable and resolute optimism of Socrates as he faces certain death.

· REPUBLIC Plato, translated by R. Waterfield, OUP 1993

It is at this point that Socrates switches his analogy to that of the souls being like the gods rather than the forms. The gods are immortal and it is natural for them to rule over the mortal populations, Plato sees this as similar to the soul's rule of the body and that it is the divines' duty to rule and command, in comparison to the mortals who must serve and obey. The effectiveness of this argument is not great and its value is questioned in the objections of both Simmias and Cebes. The objection by Simmias is that of the attunement of the lyre, and is a useful counter analogy. He argues that the attunement of a lyre is something that it is unchanging, beautiful and divine, yet when the lyre is destroyed, the attunement is destroyed also. It is invisible but not eternal. Cebes uses the example of the weaver and his cloaks, which is a similar, but quite not as effective as Simmias.

...the soul is far older than any created thing, and that it is immortality

The Phaedo contains the most reasoning and justification for asserting that the soul is immortal. In it there are three arguments that Socrates puts forward to Simmias and Cebes. The first of which is split into two parts. The first part of the first argument is concerned with showing that the soul is not simply annihilated at death. Socrates explains how that world is made up of opposites, such as cold and hot, little and large and good and evil, to name but a few. If something becomes 'bigger' then once before it must have been 'smaller', and the same can be said of a substance that is 'warmer', that previously must have been 'cooler' and so on. Things which are opposite then emerge from each other, and that whatever comes to be is derived from its opposite. If we take life to be the opposite of death, then surely, according to Plato, from life comes death, as one naturally observes and is called dying, and from death comes life which must be the process of "coming to life".!

The last proof offered by Socrates is different to the others there offered in a number of ways. The last proof is special as it is designed be the climax of the work, to tie up all the loose ends of his previous arguments and be conclusive as such an argument could be. The argument is concerned with the idea that immortality can be deduced from the postulate, or assumption that 'Forms' exist. These Forms have to be introduced to bodies by use of a 'vector' which makes their presence exist. For example the body can encounter 'warmth' by the vector 'fire'. The same is true for other Forms such as 'cold' as 'dry'. This was a common thought in presocratic physics and Plato did not introduce the notion. However Plato adapts this to prove the immortality of the soul. The number three as the vector of 'odd' cannot become even, and therefore soul as the vector of life cannot become dead. Life may be essentially predicated of the soul and therefore death can never be predicated of it!

· PLATO'S PHAEDO D. Bostock, OUP 1986

to demonstrate that the soul may have lived in a previous life and existed before, but they do not really explain what happens to the soul after the fleshy body has died.

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Approximate Word count = 2603
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)