Study Replaces the Departing Memory
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Diotima — μὴ ὅτι αἱ μὲν γίγνονται, αἱ δὲ ἀπόλλυνται ἡμῖν, καὶ οὐδέποτε οἱ αὐτοί ἐσμεν οὐδὲ κατὰ τὰς ἐπιστήμας, ἀλλὰ καὶ μία ἑκάστη τῶν ἐπιστημῶν ταὐτὸν πάσχει. ὃ γὰρ καλεῖται μελετᾶν, ὡς ἐξιούσης ἐστὶ τῆς ἐπιστήμης· λήθη γὰρ ἐπιστήμης ἔξοδος, μελέτη δὲ πάλιν καινὴν ἐμποιοῦσα ἀντὶ τῆς ἀπιούσης μνήμην σῴζει τὴν ἐπιστήμην, ὥστε τὴν αὐτὴν δοκεῖν εἶναι. τούτῳ γὰρ τῷ τρόπῳ πᾶν τὸ θνητὸν σῴζεται, οὐ τῷ παντάπασιν τὸ αὐτὸ ἀεὶ εἶναι ὥσπερ τὸ
not only that some come to be, others perish for us, and we are never the same even in our knowledge, but each single knowledge undergoes the same. For what is called studying implies that knowledge is going out; for forgetting is the going-out of knowledge, but study, implanting again a fresh memory in place of the departing, preserves the knowledge, so that it seems the same. For in this way everything mortal is preserved, not by being altogether the same always, as the divine,
The strangest case is knowledge. Not only do pieces of knowledge come and go so that we are never the same in what we know — each single piece of knowledge undergoes the same flux. What we call 'studying' exists precisely because knowledge is slipping away: forgetting is the going-out of knowledge, and study, by implanting a fresh memory in place of the departing one, preserves the knowledge so that it seems the same. In just this way, Diotima says, everything mortal is preserved — not by being always altogether the same, like the divine. Continued in 208b.
The conclusion generalizes: toutōi tōi tropōi pān to thnēton sōizetai — in just this way everything mortal is preserved, not by staying altogether the same (as the divine does), but by the old continually giving way to a new thing like it. With this, the whole account of mortal immortality is complete: a perishable being 'is forever' only through succession — cell replacing cell, memory replacing memory, and, at the level of the whole creature, child or work replacing parent. This is exactly why love, the reach for the good forever, must be love of generation: it is the only immortality open to what cannot simply endure. The point closes at 208b, where Diotima names this the way mortals share in the deathless, and turns to the human ambition for undying fame.
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