73a - 81a Summary and Analysis

Cebes agrees with the argument that the souls of the dead exist but Cebes rejoins that Socrates teaches that learning is mere recollection. In this view, we must have once learned what we now recollect, meaning that our souls had to preexist our bodies. So the soul appears immortal. Simmias wants to know the arguments for this.

Cebes argues that when men are questioned in the right way, they give the right answer by themselves; they could not do this without innate knowledge. If you show them a diagram, it will become clear. Socrates then claims this shows that knowledge is recollection.

However, Simmias is not satisfied with this and wants to review the argument himself. The argument is repeated that when we see something we have not thought of in some time, we recollect it. Socrates...