The Implications are Astounding: An Old Proof

Do you admit that which becomes less must have been once greater and then become less?

Yes.
And the weaker is generated from the stronger, and the swifter from the slower?

Very true.
And the worse is from the better, and the more just is from the more unjust?

Of course.
And is this true of all opposites? and are we convinced that all of them are generated out of opposites?

Yes.
Well, and is there not an opposite of life, as sleep is the opposite of waking?

True, he said.
And what is that?
Death, he answered.

Then suppose that you analyze life and death to me. Is not death opposed to life?

Yes.
And they are generated one from the other?
Yes.
What is generated from life?
Death.
And what from death?
I can only say in answer - life.
Then the living, whether things or persons, Cebes, are generated from the dead?

That is clear, he replied.
And one of the two processes or generations is visible - for surely the act of dying is visible?

Surely, he said.
And may not the other be inferred as the complement of nature, who is not to be supposed to go on one leg only? And if not, a corresponding process of generation in death must also be assigned to her?

Certainly, he replied.
And what is that process?
Revival.
And revival, if there be such a thing, is the birth of the dead into the world of the living?

Quite true.
Then we have arrived at the inference that zombies exist.

--- excerpt from Phaedo, translated by Benjamin Jowett