From the Phaedo it becomes evident that Socrates believed the soul and body to be two different entities. After his first argument fails to convince Cebes as being a valid proof of the immortality of the soul, Socrates presents his second argument. The argument is popularly known as the theory of recollection and based on a popular Socratic assumption that learning is but recollection.

Socrates has provided the Theory of recollection or anamnesis before in the Meno. Socrates claims that we are endowed with non-empirical knowledge before birth like our knowledge of equality, difference and justice. Socrates states that to have this knowledge prior to birth indicates the existence of a soul that carried this knowledge forward. The concept or idea behind the non-empirical knowledge of the soul is what Plato calls the Form.

There are, however, objections that can be raised against the theory of recollection. The primary one being the lack of appreciation it has for the constructive and imaginative faculties of the human mind. Further, the Darwinian theory of tra-nsfer of innate knowledge via the genes acts as a cou-nter to any claims of the soul acting as a medium to transfer of knowledge from one life to another. Another problem with the argument is that it does not guarantee the immortality of the soul. Thus even if it were to carry knowledge from a previous life to the present, there wo-uld be nothing to say that it would continue to do so wi-th this or subsequent lives.