Phaedo
•Socrates’
4 arguments for immortality of the soul
•The
Opposites Argument or "Cyclical argument" explains
that as the Forms are eternal and unchanging, and as the soul
always brings life, then it must not die, and is necessarily
"imperishable". As the body is mortal and is subject to
physical death, the soul must be its indestructible
opposite. Plato then suggests the analogy of fire and cold. If
the form of cold is imperishable, and fire, its opposite,
was within close proximity, it would have to withdraw intact as does
the soul during death. This could be likened to the idea
of the opposite charges of magnets.