Plato and Seneca on Death Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Plato and Seneca on Death - Essay Example It demands attention, makes us busy with working for a living and fills us with desires, wants and fears. Our search for the truth is also impeded whenever our bodies are afflicted by disease. The body can be said to be the ultimate inhibiting factor in our desire to wander in our thoughts. True philosophers try to separate the soul from the body in their search for the truth. It is in this regard where death provides an avenue for it is only thru this where the body and the soul can be separated. Philosophy, then, is the quest for knowledge and enlightenment and the only way for this to be achieved is thru the separation of the body and soul. The only way to separate the body and soul is death. Those who truly desire to become philosophers must be prepared to live as close to death as possible. This does not necessarily mean that they should always be in near-death situations. Instead, they should not be too much concerned with the intricacies of the body providing only the basic nourishment it needs. It is due to this that true philosophers and lovers of wisdom do not fear death. Seneca, one the Stoic philosopher, offers a rather compelling manifesto regarding the subject of life and time. The pervading notion during his time was that nature has cursed us with so short a life that it often ends just when we were getting ready for it. This kind of thinking not only afflicts the common people who form the majority of the populace but each and every individual member of society including distinguished men and women who had all the means for a leisurely life. Life, as observed by Seneca in most people, is that it is viewed in terms of postponement. People live as though their life is ensured in the future. They talk about their retirement or the time they will be having their own orchards. Seneca argues that life is finite and is essentially about time. However, the greatest obstacle to living was expectancy wherein we set our sights of what lies in the future while we waste the time we have today. We are thus disposed of that which lay in the hands of Fortune, while letting go of that which was in our own. If we live today and in the present moment, we could live every moment of our life as though it would last forever. Seneca says that everything even darkness and light is contained in a single day. To use the present well is to be aware of this completeness. More days, and months, and years, will or at least may make up our lives if we only made wise of our time. In making the most of our time, we make the most of our life. Life is making use of time and time is making use of life. In this regard, there is not much difference between the two less we perceive life as though we have all the time in the world. 3.0 Plato and Seneca on Death Philosophy and death are intricately entwined in the writings of Plato and Seneca. An analysis of their writings would reveal that share many similarities yet diverge in certain issues. To start with, Plato recognizes that opposites come only from opposites. Since the opposite of life is death and that death comes from life, life can also come from death. Plato would counsel his listeners that death can only lead to immortality as the soul is finally freed from the body but this is only true when the soul already existed without the body. While Plato explains death