Socrates, the father of modern Western philosophy, once said, shortly before his death, that "[those] who have come into contact with philosophy in the right way devote themselves to anything other than dying and being dead” (Phaedo 64A). In other words, Socrates believed that the philosopher's life should be centered on preparing for death. While this may seem like a morbid reason for existence, Socrates argues that the body prevents the soul from finding what is true through sensory experience, needs, and emotions, and the only release from this sort of “prison ” is death. Socrates supports this argument by arguing that all his life he has been preparing for death and does not care when it comes since the soul is eternal. In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates sees the body as “…an obstacle [to] the very achievement of reflection.” (Phaedo 65B) and therefore the soul of the true philosopher must be separated from it to achieve true enlightenment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayFor example, Socrates states that the body "... deprives us of leisure on thousands of occasions [and hinders] our search for what is." (Phaedo 66C). Ultimately, the highest desire for a philosopher is the pursuit and attainment of truth, but the body impedes its pursuit due to necessity, such as food, shelter, and safety, and through emotions such as love, desire, and terror. Through desires, needs, greed, and other impulses, the body perverts the soul's desire for wisdom into “desire for money and desire for honor,” as if the soul were a slave to the needs of the body (Phaedo 67E). Socrates then goes on to argue that "...any man who fretted at the prospect of dying was not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body." (Phaedo 68C). Philosophy itself comes from the Ancient Greek “philo-,” meaning love, and “-sophia,” meaning wisdom (Mark). Together, the two terms mean “lover of wisdom” and is defined as “the study of the most basic and profound questions of human existence.” (Sign). Socrates supports this argument by stating that there are simple, immutable ideas in life such as justice, beauty, and goodness, which will never be understood through sensory experience (Phaedo 65D). Earlier in the text, Socrates provides examples of how, throughout his life, he distanced himself from bodily desires to better prepare for death such as rejecting indulgences related to food, drink, clothing, sex, and honor. (Phaedo 64C) in exchange for thoughtfulness, which was the only thing of true value and purified every impurity (Phaedo 69C). In conclusion, Socrates states that once the soul is freed from the body, it will finally be ready to reach truth and enlightenment. Once Socrates establishes that the body and soul are separate entities and that the desires of each vary, the other two philosophers in the dialogue question Socrates' confidence in the eternal life of the soul and whether the time spent preparing for death was a waste. In response, Socrates provides two separate arguments in favor of the eternal nature of the soul continuing in life “among the Gods.” (Phaedo 69E). The first of these arguments is the “Argument from Opposites” and Socrates states that opposites seem to seek each other out, as “the opposite of being asleep is being awake” (Phaedo 71C). Therefore, since opposites exist with each other, whether pain to pleasure or weak to strong, there is an opposite state to life which is death. However, since people are now in a state of life, “living things come from the dead.” (Phaedo 71D) just as the strong comes from the weak and pleasure comes from pain. In essence, Socrates states that the..