Theodor Ebert

In this paper, I discuss two passages in Plato’s Phaedo : 91e–92e, i. e. the first argument Socrates uses against Simmias’ contention that the soul is a harmony ; 74e–75c, which is a part of the recollection argument. The aim in discussing these two passages is to show that Plato allows his characters, Socrates and Simmias, to pursue different strategies in the argument, based on different levels of understanding. I further argue that reading the passages mentioned as dialectical games involving two personae shows that a certain doctrine attributed to Plato, i. e. the so-called theory of recollection, was not in fact part of Plato’s philosophical creed.