Plato noted that knowledge is a recollection whereby humans possess an innate understanding of activities or things they experience in the world. Plato believed that a person regains knowledge when his soul resides in the invisible realm of the forms and the good. Thus, everything that exists in the natural world is a representation of the ideal way of the kind (Gulley 14). The idea of knowledge as a recollection regarding death and dying is separation of soul from body. According to Socrates, death is the separation of the soul from the body of a person, and a person dies before the body ceases to function. I will focus the argument by opposing the notion that death is a way of freeing one’s soul from the body which is a prison.
First I understand death as an end of life. Nevertheless, understanding death needs clarity on aspects and nature of life and indicates that there is a way to suspend or restore life as well as how people live. Moreover, we need to understand the concept of death and how a person can detect death. In addressing death and dying thoughts, a person should understand what facts constitute death. People die when they live but cannot comprehend death as an end of their lives (Luper 10). Besides, people do not understand the sense of harm that death brings to their lives, and such only occur due to the interest that a person has regarding life.
Plato and Socrates understand death as freedom or separation of the soul from our body, and as philosophers, they say that a real philosopher practices death in a way that life is usually behind him. Thus, both the individuals understood life as a process of searching for its meaning or a source of happiness and conforming to search. Hence, to both Socrates and Plato, the body is a hindrance to the search for knowledge and the meaning of life. Consequently, their primary goal was to be free from the body and its entanglements to search for knowledge (Luper 10). On the same note the two philosophers especially Plato understood human nature as dualistic with both soul and body. Thus, the soul only remains, and the person seeks satisfaction through death (Luper 10). Hence, the death occurs long before the real functionality of the body comes to an end. I disagree with the idea that death takes place when a person is still alive, and such is the best way to seek knowledge (Luper 10). If indeed death is a way of freedom from the obstacle in the quest of knowledge then Socrates is contradictory on his rejection of suicide which he noted as illegitimate. In fact, one understands the argument of Plato regarding death to be a blessing but puzzled by the contradiction of suicide activity as a way to take their lives. Therefore, if such is the case, then death is not freedom. Besides, the argument that a person in possession of the gods and needs not to harm himself has no basis as such is one of the ways to gain the freedom and becoming free from the burden that our body brings in the quest for knowledge.
Secondly, Plato noted that knowledge is a recollection of information about things in the natural world. Thus, such are representations of the ideal form of the kind. One fails to understand whether the physical world exists after death. Well, I know death as misfortune as life or longevity of a person makes him access the physical world. The absence of immortality in a person makes him become attached to the life and seek knowledge meaningfully to the extent of death (Gulley 14). Therefore, I fail to agree with the idea that Plato issued regarding death as a way to free our soul to seek knowledge. When Plato noted that human possesses an innate understanding of activities or things they experience in the world as a way to acquire knowledge, he became the judge and supported the idea that a person gains knowledge when he is alive and gain much experience from the physical world.
Plato and Socrates noted that the afterlife is good for the people who lived well during their humanly lives. On the other hand, the afterlife is terrible for those who are wicked in their present lives. Well, Plato before his death had an assumption of the immortality. The philosophers failed to elaborate how the spending of the present life is a preparation for death and dying yet they noted that death is a freedom or a way of separating your soul from the body (Bett 26). Besides, the philosophers distanced themselves from worldly pleasures such as drinks, sex, food, and fancy clothes among others. Instead, Plato concentrated on the well-being of the souls and wanted to free the soul as much as possible from the body arguing that the senses of a person are imprecise and deceive people. Moreover, the philosophers explained that wisdom came from reason alone when a person distanced from the distractions of the body (Bett 26). I refute the claim above is such would require meditation which brings the argument whether it is a form of gaining knowledge. Also, people also gain insight and pleasure from doing well, eat well and have decent clothes. I think learning knowledge and experience requires getting in contact with the physical world through activities instead of working on a way of separating the soul from the body which is seeking death. Well, whether a person commits suicide or waits for the natural course to die still die and the process is not a gateway to gain knowledge. Neglect of the senses of the body is not a way to gain experience instead embracing such makes a person gain understanding regarding nature and its interactions. On the same note, aspects such as goodness, justice, and beauty among others even though never come from the senses, they result via unaided intellect as within the context of interaction with the physical world against the moral laws. For example, a practice of injustice will be noted upon examination against the moral law, and such cannot happen when the soul remains separated from the body because the soul will no longer exist in the physical world. Thus, I disagree with the idea that attaining the truth and knowledge improves when a person dies or becomes close to death as he distances the soul from the body.
In conclusion, death and dying are not ways of separating soul and body to gain knowledge but the opposite of life. Death is the loss of capacity to live whereby the body no longer can provide a vital process to function leading to the end of life. A person gains knowledge through the interaction with the physical world leading to again of experience that remains recollected in the brain to bring about the innate understanding of all the activities and things in the real world. Therefore, separation of the soul from the body through the process of death and dying is not a way of gaining knowledge hence forming the basis of refuting in the present essay.
Works Cited
Bett, Richard. "Immortality and the Nature of the Soul in the" Phaedrus"." Phronesis (1986): 1-26.
Gulley, Norman. Plato's Theory of Knowledge (Routledge Revivals). Page 14, Routledge, 2013.
Luper, Steven, ed. The Cambridge companion to life and death. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
