Philosophy is Practicing for Death According to Socrates - Essay Example

Topic – Philosophy is practicing for death Introduction In the Journal, “Philosophy is practicing death” the great philosopher Socrates argues thatthe human life is not for enjoying pleasures but to prepare oneself to accept death whole heartedly. Here, Socrates describes death as separation of soul from the body. According to him a true philosopher does not live life experiencing pleasures but spent time turning away from his bodily impulses and temptations. He believes that one should live life concentrating on soul and not on body. When a person surrenders to the will of the body then he will have to face pain and misery in his life. Socrates here explains to the common men about the true way of conducting life. According to Socrates philosophy is practicing for death as common man fail to understand philosophy being materialistic. So, in this essay I will focus on explaining the distinction between common men’s perspective on life and Socrates philosophy of life. Socrates claim that a philosopher has no affinity to pleasure’s of life as the ordinary people do .According to him, a true philosopher focus all his attention to soul and live a life in a spiritual manner. A philosopher’s inclination is towards the soul and he entirely ignores the passions and desires invoked by the physical body. A man who is spiritually awakened looks for means to get relieved from the bondage of birth and death cycle. However, common men enjoy the pleasures of life and get entangled in the repeated cycle of birth and death. The Common Man’s View upon Life Normally everyone is aware of the fact that a philosopher’s outlook of life is different from that of a common man. A true philosopher likes Socrates have a distinctive perception on life and death. A common man foresees life and body as a medium to enjoy materialistic pleasures and enjoyment. They assume that the life gifted by God is to merely indulge in pleasures and other than this he has no goal .They believe that the sense gratification is the sole purpose of human beings. Many people are ignorant or unaware about existence of soul and the divine essence of it. Ordinary person perceives world with physical senses and thus gets delusional thoughts and experiences of it. Common people lack knowledge about the true nature of their inner being which is immortal and inexhaustible. Most people do not believe in the concept of rebirth and assume that the life they have is precious and invaluable. This very thought persuades them to despise death and excessively love their life .They resist death in every way as they want to enjoy the nectar of life and its pleasures more and more. Death being considered as a cessation to life is avoided by a man of less wisdom in all possible manners. Socrates argues that the reason for man’s delusion about life and death is because of their lacking in spiritual knowledge. Socrates View Upon life Socrates is a man of great wisdom and spiritual knowledge. He is one of the greatest philosophers world has ever seen. Socrates ideas and views upon life are drastically distinct from that of a common man. He has the attribute of a genuine philosopher to question and enquire everything in life. He discovered with his contemplative thinking that the sole activity of a philosopher is practicing death. He understood embracing death is the unique way to enjoy the nectar of life. He unlocked the door to freedom by practicing death and being inquisitive about life and its purpose. According to Socrates, life of a human being become less painful if he trains himself for the big event called death. Socrates proclaims that life on earth is an imprisonment and death gives us an opportunity to escape from this prison. As a philosopher he is not attached to material things in life and deems pleasure as a burden. They being highly knowledgeable and spiritual urge to merge with God and death are the prime solution obtainable. For Socrates, death is a joyful experience as it is an entrance to God. His aim is to union with Gods and hence he demonstrates displeasure in living the life on earth. According to Socrates’ one should practice to face death throughout his life, if he is a genuine philosopher. For him death is more realistic than life and is the true path to happiness. Why Philosophy is Practicing Death Socrates argues that philosophy is practicing death because it believes in immortal nature of soul and not in the pleasures of the temporary physical body. He has absorbed the truth of nature with his wisdom and enlightened spirit and understood everything in universe is destructible. He claims that a wise man should use his life in preparing for death, so that when the time arrives he can confront it with the rational mentality. For him absconding from death is not the true spirit if a philosopher. A philosopher is consistently in look out for merging their soul with the Gods and death is the right solace for them. He mentions that as a philosopher he desired, longed and rehearsed death his entire life. Since philosophers’ practice dying they less consider death as a terror. Common man fail to understand the real pursuit of life and applies the laws of nature in a distorted manner, hence they remain in ignorance. Whereas a philosopher experience constraints in his physical body and long to detach his soul from it. According to Socrates, the desires and impulses of physical body brings in hurdles in the practice of philosophy. The mind is inhibited by the body and man wanders through earth repeatedly life after life due to his attachment to body and sensory pleasures. The real pursuit for truth is hindered by the body as it creates numerous distractions in the life of a person. Socrates claims that body arouses emotions, desires and fear in a person and he fails to practice philosophy. The Real Philosophical Idea of Socrates Socrates idea of philosophy is aligned with his aim of realizing his soul completely and merging it with the heavenly gods. He claims that common men waste their life indulging in pleasure having not understood that life is a mere fantasy. All their life is dedicated to satisfy the bodily need and desires. They have no knowledge of the existence and longing of their soul. Socrates being a true philosopher neglects the bodily desires but look up to save his soul from the perpetual cycle of birth and death. He thinks that to attain pure knowledge the physical body should be disregarded and attention should be focused on soul. According to him, relieving oneself from the entanglement of the body is the definite solution to attain immortality. Since a philosopher live his life being independent of body, they could welcome death whole heartedly. A proper practicing of philosophy is preparing oneself to embrace death and this is not a task possible for a materialistic man. A true philosopher devotes his life in pursuit of truth and knowledge. Socrates defines death as separation of soul from the physical body. He believes that matters of body are not of our concern as we are the immortal soul with divine quality. One who concentrates on body need to find ample time to nurture and maintain them .In this process, one falls in to the deep illusion of the Materialistic world. A philosopher with wisdom can segregate body from soul and understand that both have different goals. A foolish man lacks wisdom and hence invites pain and misery by enjoying all the bodily and worldly pleasures. When the death strikes he mourns as his ignorance as led to his obsession with the physical body. Socrates being a true philosopher was fearless of death .He instead finds death as an experience which can allow him entrance to heavenly plane of existence. A philosopher who lacks wisdom and spiritual insight can nurture misconception about the realities of life and death. Socrates being ideal in reasoning ability and logical sense has enlightened himself with spiritual knowledge. Socrates was courageous and faced the truth of life with real spirit. A man usually welcomes death only in a case where his life is more threatening to him than death. But this is not the situation with a philosopher, as he with all the freedom and choice in life, prefers death. Socrates believed that the highest aspiration for men should be to live with the heavenly gods. This is possible only with accepting death and practicing for it by means of philosophical life. He claims that soul has fate according to its deed but one who spend his entire life engaging in worldly pleasure definitely get attached to mortal body. The more he is obsessed with this body the more will be his fear for death. So being a true philosopher Socrates practiced for death whole of his life in contrary to a common man who is materialistic. The Way Socrates’ Practiced for Death Socrates practiced for death by being religiously grounded and having strong conviction in his moral principles and ethical values. Unlike, common men he did not while away his life in seeking pleasure. His philosophical principles aided him in practicing death by accepting pain and neglecting amusements of life. In one way, by enduring the pains of life he realized that death is far better than agonies of life. By sense gratification, one cannot lead an immortal life as the gross body is of destructible nature. He believed that accessing heaven is only possible by means of death. He is a lover of wisdom and being wise, he accepted death as it is a natural phenomenon of transition. Socrates being inquisitive discovered that mind is the cause of all causes and it interacted with physical world to create illusion. Socrates reasoning ability convinced him about the after -life and divinity of soul. In further life, he concentrated whole of his efforts in purifying the soul and merging it with heavenly gods. He ignored body as it is deceitful and held on to soul which is immortal. As he knew body is temporal, he could easily eradicate the fear of death from his mind. His soul aim was waiting for death and to enter the heavenly realm and live with gods. For this very reason, he loved death and desired for it as a common man would desire for life. Moreover, Socrates understood the difference between the visible and the invisible. According to Socrates our interaction with visible world is through the senses and as they are deceitful, one could not trust visible forms. Invisible on the contrary, is eternal, changeless, pure, uniform and indivisible. He proclaimed that only with virtue, goodness and wisdom can a man investigate the reality of invisible power, namely soul. For Socrates philosophy is an act of evaluating and analyzing the mysterious of life and discovering the main aim of human life. His conception was that, only a pure soul could ask for death as it urges for union with God. He examined things with his reasoning, without involving physical body so as to know the true nature of things. According to him the unique principle of philosophy is to separate body from soul and with the help of reasoning embrace death with full acceptance. For him wisdom and knowledge is achievable only through application of philosophy in life. He explains that to despise or hate death directs to the love a man has for his body and worldly pleasures. A properly enlightened mind can only perceives the realities of life and one need to awaken his consciousness in order to be pure. According to him, death in itself is not different from life; it is the mind of common men which makes the difference .The philosophy teaches a person the art of death and way to welcome it. Finally, it could be concluded that the Socrates definition for philosophy is the practicing of death or preparation for dying or death. Read More