Selection from Plato’s Dialogue “Phaedo,” Part 2 of 2

According to Plato, the soul loses at birth the clear recollection of Ideas. Plato’s philosophy asserts the presence of the physical realm and the spiritual rem. The physical realm is the material world, that is imperfect and evolving. As for the spiritual realm, and is termed by Plato it exists beyond as the Realm of Forms or the Realm of Ideas or Realm of Ideals. If we would have pure knowledge of anything, we must be quit of the body- and then we shall attain the soul in herself must behold things in themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom which we desire.