Is death preferable to life, or is life more preferable to death?

The answer to this

question will vary from person to person depending upon his moral or ethical
character, because depending upon his ethical character there could be persons for
whom life is worth more and therefore preferable to death and also individuals for
whom death is worth more than life. For a person who views death as a transition to
another form of life or existence and for whom the afterlife is nothing but a
reflection of the worldly life and bears along with this doctrine a noble nature and
an ethical character, death would be worth more than life, because he would view
death as a release and liberation from the torments and worries of this world and as
a beginning of a more blessed and felicitous life. On the contrary an evil and wicked
individual would look at death as an end of his blessed and happy worldly life and
the commencement of a more tormenting one. He would see death as something
coming to separate him from his beloved, meaning the world, and therefore regard
it as unpleasant, such a person could never love death but would always hate it. In
contrast to this a person who views death as a phenomenon meant to unite him
with the object of his desire would always love it and desire it. Platonism asserts
that it is the virtuous who love and therefore desire death and it is the wicked who
hate it, in fact according to Platonism philosophy is nothing but the preparation for
death, however even the virtuous ought to refrain from taking their own lives even
though they desire death, this is because our lives are not our own but are the
possessions of God and are therefore not to be harmed. The life that we have is a
divine endowment that we have been entrusted with, and hence we are merely
acting as custodians of this divine gift which is the property of God. According to
Platonism every person is both dead and alive simultaneously, but obviously no one
can be both dead and alive at the same time in the same respect according to the
principle of non-contradiction, therefore all individuals are both dead and alive
simultaneously but in different respects. From the perspective of the nonphilosophers or laymen one who is attentive to the demands and the requirements
of his material body is said to be alive, whereas one who is inattentive to the
demands or requirements of the flesh is dead to it. But what is meant by being
attentive to the demands of the flesh or the body, it means indulging in bodily
pleasures such as eating, drinking and love making. Being alive to the body means
gratification of material desires through indulgence in pleasures of the flesh,
therefore those who seek happiness through the pleasures of the flesh are most
alive to the body. However from the viewpoint of the philosopher those who are
attentive to the body and its demands or requirements are dead and their death is
caused by indulgence in pleasures and the gratification of material desires, this is
because Platonism views Man as being a composite between body and the soul,
wherein it is the body that is ignoble and the soul noble, it is the soul that is
precious and the body unworthy or base, and it is not possible for the one to be
attentive to both simultaneously, because if one is more attentive towards the body
so the body and the material desires associated with it will distract him from paying
due attention to the soul and its requirements, and consequently being attentive to
the body would mean being inattentive to the soul therefore one who is alive to the

body cannot at the same time be alive to the soul and alternatively speaking one
who is alive to the soul cannot simultaneously be alive to the body, because being
alive to the soul means being dead to the demands of the body such as indulgence
in pleasures and bodily passions. It means that being alive to the body means being
dead to the soul and being dead to the body means being alive to the soul. But
what is meant by being alive to the soul? it means focusing ones efforts on
contemplating the intelligible as opposed to focusing merely on that which is
sensible, because being attentive to that which is sensible and the sensible reality
means being alive to the body through which or by means of which sense
perception is exercised or performed, and being alive to the body excludes being
alive to the soul. Therefore being alive to the soul involves contemplation of the
intelligible reality as opposed to the sensible and seeking to apprehend the truth
through contemplation and reflection on that which lies beyond the sensible realm.
It can also be ascertained from the above discussion that according to the Platonists
in the view of a philosopher or a lover of wisdom the realm of the flesh, the sensible
and material world is dead in comparison to the realm of the soul, which is the
intelligible and non-sensible realm. The Platonists define death as separation
between the body and the soul, as liberation of the soul from bodily fetters and they
define life as a preparation of death as has been mentioned above, this is due to the
fact that if death is the separation between the body and the soul so a philosopher
seeks to do just the same thing throughout his life by employing philosophy as a
tool for separating the soul from indulgence in the gratification of bodily desires,
from seeking pleasures of the flesh and focusing on that which is sensible to the
exclusion of that which is intelligible. Therefore philosophy in the opinion of the
Platonists is the practice of death before the actual occurrence of death itself.
Therefore a philosophic life is one of non-indulgence in physical or bodily pleasures
and of contemplation of the intelligible as opposed to the sensible and thereby
seeking to apprehend the truth. The idea that life is nothing but the preparation for
death through the practice of philosophy for the apprehension of truth is based on
the notion or belief that the body is an obstacle in the disclosure of truth because
the soul which is the only thing in the body-soul duality called man that can be said
to possess the ability or faculty for apprehending truth or reality, is distracted by
the body through the various bodily and material desires and passions that arise
within the soul by virtue of its association with the body. Platonism brings forth a
hierarchy of the senses whereby certain senses such as the sense of sight and
hearing have the ability to disclose reality to a greater extent than the other bodily
senses, and the reality disclosed by the physical senses cannot be relied upon due
to its deceptive nature. This is because our senses only disclose or reveal to us the
thing in us but they do not reveal or disclose to us the thing in itself, or in other
words it can be said that the senses disclose only the accidents but not the
substance of the thing, which is its essence, or that which makes that thing what it
is and without which it will no longer be what it is, and it is these true essences
which form the substantial reality of a thing with which philosophy is most
concerned in the opinion of the Platonists, and therefore apprehending the truth

really means grasping or apprehending these true essences of things, that lie
beyond the reach of the bodily senses. These true essences of things or Forms are
not sensible in nature and therefore cannot be grasped by the bodily senses in fact
they are intelligible forms and can only be apprehended by reason alone, meaning
the intellect. The greater a soul is engaged in the pursuit of physical pleasures the
weaker or lesser would be its grasp of these intelligible forms and the lesser a soul
is involved in the pursuit of bodily pleasures the greater would be the possibility of
its grasping these intelligible forms. This is because bodily pleasures and desires act
as shackles that bound and imprison the soul within this material or physical reality
not allowing it and the intellect that resides within it to contemplate the true
essences of things. It is the task of philosophy to free the soul from these bodily
shackles and thereby allow it to comprehend and contemplate the essences. The
body acts as a conduit or a bridge between the soul and the external reality that
exists without it, by engendering within the soul desires, passions, love and fear
through its association or contact with the physical or material world of the senses,
and by doing so the body distracts the soul and prevents it from contemplating the
truly real. One whose soul is distracted by his body through the bodily desires and
passions that are engendered within the soul through the body, and is therefore
prevented from contemplating that which is truly real is in reality a slave. He is a
slave to his bodily desires and passions. The free man is he who is able to separate
or liberate his soul from the shackles of the physical passions and desires to
contemplate the true essences, in other words the free man is one who is able to
master his body, therefore in the opinion of the Platonists the objective of
philosophy is to endeavor to enthrone the soul over the kingdom of the body rather
than allowing the body to enslave and imprison the soul by giving birth within it to
the bodily desires and passions through the bodys contact with the material world.
When it is said that the task of philosophy is to separate the soul from the body to
allow the intellect thereby to reason purely so it is not a reference to a literal
ontological separation between the being of the soul and that of its body, but what
it means is to prevent the soul through philosophy from indulgence in the
gratification of the physical desires. The Platonists see the body as something
impure and ignoble, they see it as something designed to imprison and enslave the
soul, and to keep it tied to the material world as a captive. They see the physical
body as a cause of all the physical desires and passions that arise within the soul
and thereby distract the soul from apprehension of the truth. Therefore the body is
viewed as possessing an infective and contagious nature that is itself impure and
renders the soul also impure by association and contact. The soul on the other hand
is viewed by the Platonists as something pure and noble capable of apprehending
the true essences of things, a captive in prison within this material realm but
seeking always to set itself free from its bodily fetters. They see the soul as the
seeker of truth which is the object of its desire but access to which is prevented by
the body that always acts as a prison to hold its prisoner back from attaining its
desire, meaning truth. Therefore the aim of a philosophic life is to purify the soul
from indulgence in bodily desires and passions and thereby enabling it to

contemplate the truly real. One who is able to purify the soul from the body or in
other words is successful in separating the soul from the body by preventing it from
indulgence in pleasures and the satisfaction of its bodily or physical desires, is said
to have experienced death, it is such a person who in the opinion of nonphilosophers is said to be dead due to his being inattentive to the demands of the
body, but in the eye of the philosophers it is such a person who is truly alive by
reason of being attentive to his soul and its requirements. Therefore in the opinion
of the Platonists the living is not one who merely breathes but one who is attentive
to his soul and focuses thereon to the exclusion of his body and its passions, and
the dead is one who is merely attentive to his body to the exclusion of his soul,
which he neglects due to being distracted through indulgence in bodily pleasures.
The philosopher therefore aims to die before death through purification of the soul.
The philosophers aim is to escape from this material realm by separating the soul
from the body and thereby focusing only on the intelligible-realm to apprehend truth
or the essences. According to the Platonists knowledge is simply a function of
recollection meaning that we do not learn anything new but simply recollect that
which we already knew before. This brings us to the distinction between universals
and particulars, according to which in the opinion of the Platonists there is a higher
and nobler Ideal Reality which is non-sensible and intelligible in character and a
lower, physical and material reality which is sensible and perceivable through the
senses. Every sensible thing that exists in this lower world is a particular that
participates in a universal ideal intelligible form subsisting in the higher idealreality, which is immaterial and immutable. The sensible things found here in this
world of matter and change are incomplete reflections or imperfect shadows of the
ideal forms subsisting in the higher world. In the opinion of the Platonists the human
souls pre-existed their material bodies and during the time they were un-embodied
they used to contemplate and view the ideal forms or universals in the intelligible
reality and therefore had knowledge concerning them, but as a result of being
embodied within matter by reason of their descent into this lower material world
they were made to forget or become neglectful of these intelligible forms. Now
whenever the embodied soul perceives or experiences through the senses any
particular sensible thing here, it is made to recollect or is reminded of the ideal
intelligible form of that particular sensible thing present within the soul, of which
that external object or thing is merely an imperfect image or shadow. Therefore in
the opinion of the Platonists the individual human soul is a container of the ideal
forms of which the sensible things are mere images. According to the Platonists the
human soul is like a bird longing to be set at liberty from its cage, the body, so that
it may be able to sour upwards towards that ideal-reality of the true essences,
which are the object of its desire, but the soul is hampered in achieving this goal by
its bodily desires and passions which plague the soul through the body, and
constantly act as shackles preventing the souls upward flight. It is in the nature of
the soul to move upwards towards that which is truly real and beautiful, and to
escape the realm of illusion and matter, and just as it is in the nature of the soul to
move upwards, it is in the nature of the body to bend downwards and to incline

towards that which is sensible and material, in other words the soul is light but its
container or frame, meaning the body, is heavy and burdensome always seeking to
pull it down towards the material and sensible world. The various pleasures and
lusts available in this world present themselves as attractions to the soul, but are
actually designed to entrap the soul in this material realm and keep it trapped here.
Platonism asserts the existence of two realms or worlds with opposite properties or
attributes, such that there is this world of sense and matter, the world of sensible
things, wherein all that exists is always in a state of change and flux, where
everything is perishable and finite, where all things are incomplete and imperfect
images of a greater reality subsisting elsewhere. Contrary to this is the realm of
ideal reality which is the world wherein subsist the true essences of sensible
particulars, these universal essences are changeless being devoid of change they
remain constant and fixed always, immutable. But if these ideal essences are
devoid of change and therefore immutable so in order to remain as such they must
be devoid of matter as well, because where there is matter there is also change,
therefore these essences must necessarily be immaterial. That realm is a realm of
ideal beauty and perfection wherein all that subsists is perfect and complete. The
particular things of sense that exist here are sensible and can therefore be
apprehended by sense perception, and it is this sense perception which holds the
soul back from contemplating that which is its main object, meaning the ideal forms
or essences, because whenever we perceive things here, eat and drink or
experience intimacy the soul by engaging in all these activities of sense perception
is made to associate with matter, with that which is heavy and burdensome and is
therefore inclined towards the lower world, it is made to communicate with that
which contrives and plots to keep it captive here in this world of sense and matter,
and is as a result of this unable to comprehend and contemplate the object of its
desire by being held down by sense perception. Therefore in the opinion of the
Platonists if the soul desires to achieve its objective of contemplating that which is
truly beautiful and real, and experience true vision, so it must cease all
communication and association with the body and the sensible reality that
surrounds it, it must relinquish the enjoyment of physical pleasures and the
gratification of bodily desires, and gather or collect itself to look inwards within
itself, because it is only through the abandonment of all intercourse and commerce
with the body that the soul will be able to sour upwards towards the realm of
perfection and harmony and experience true vision. The embodiment of the soul
has made it heavy and burdensome accidentally due to its association with matter,
its bodily frame, therefore if the soul desires to become light, which is its true
nature or character, then it must detach itself from the body to regain its essential
nature. But what is meant by the souls looking inwards within itself? It means
seeking to recollect the ideal forms of the true essences of the particular things that
exist without and that are mere imperfect and incomplete images of the ideal forms
contained within the soul, this is achieved by withdrawing from all that is alien to
the soul and its essential nature, to contemplate and experience a vision of that
which is similar to it. In Platonism the external reality or the sensible world can

perform two absolutely contrary roles, the sensible things existing therein can either
distract the soul and lead it astray from its main goal which is to contemplate the
ideal, and this will happen if the soul takes this sensible realm and the things in it to
be the real thing, and allow matter to keep it captive here in this world, or
alternatively it can allow the soul to use the particular sensible objects to remind it
of the ideal forms, or in other words to enable and allow it to recollect the true
essences of things. In the opinion of the Platonists man is a composite being,
composed of a body and a soul and therefore holds within his being aspects of both
the worlds, namely the visible world of the senses as well as the invisible world of
the ideal forms, because his body which is made of matter corresponds to the
visible and sensible reality whereas his soul corresponds to that which is intelligible,
invisible and immaterial. Platonism asserts that out of these two components that
make up mans being the body is mutable, changeable and always in a state of flux,
and is therefore perishable whereas the soul remains the same, constant and
immutable and is therefore imperishable. According to the Platonists since the
material reality that exists around us is always changing, being in state of constant
flux, therefore the sense data which we derive as a result of our interaction with this
reality cannot be relied upon and does not discloses or reveals the truth and
therefore has no value. In the opinion of the Platonists truth is universal, constant,
not subject to change and therefore immutable, and since the material world is
contrary to this, meaning that it is always in a state of flux like a river that flows, no
real knowledge can be obtained by sense perception. The senses can only
apprehend that which is sensible and since truth is non-sensible and immutable,
being a fixed reality, it is intelligible and therefore can only be grasped by the
intellect. Since the soul is from the presence of the divine and is nobler and more
exalted than the material body being purer than it, it is the soul that ought to rule
over and dominate the body and not the body dominating the soul. In the opinion of
the Platonists the good man is a wise man, a philosopher, who allows the soul to
dominate his body by subduing his bodily desires and passions, and abstaining from
the gratification of desires. The evil man is one in whom the body rules over the
soul, meaning he indulges freely in the gratification of his lusts and physical desires
to the detriment of his soul. The Platonists see the soul as being immortal and
therefore imperishable and the body as being mortal and perishable, therefore it is
folly in their opinion to concentrate and focus more on that which is temporary to
the exclusion of that which is imperishable and permanent. Therefore he is wise who
prefers the imperishable and immortal over the perishable. It is the souls desire to
escape the body and free itself from this material prison and sour upwards towards
the invisible and intelligible reality which is pure, noble and immutable, home to the
ideal forms, the universals, but the soul is impeded in achieving this objective by
the snares and shackles placed on itself by the body, its material frame, its earthly
prison, which constantly seeks to lure and attract the soul towards base matters
such as seeking to gratify its physical desires and indulgence in bodily passions to
derive pleasures of the flesh, the body is continuously endeavoring to prolong the
captivity of the soul into this realm of imperfection and illusion, it plots to put the

soul to sleep and prolong this slumberous state wherein the souls gaze is distracted
and diverted from all that which truly real and beautiful to focus its vision and
attention on that which is false, illusory and imperfect instead. The body is endlessly
endeavoring to contaminate the purity of the soul and to make it like itself, impure
and base, something lowly, burdensome and heavy, incapable of viewing and
gazing towards that which is sublime and beautiful, and therefore lacking the
capacity for vision. Platonism asserts that association with the body is death for the
soul because as long as the soul remains immersed in the satisfaction of its worldly
desires and passions and the seeking of bodily pleasures of the flesh it is asleep and
due to its slumber unaware of the intelligible reality. Platonists assert that it is the
task of philosophy to awaken the soul from this slumber, this sleep induced by
matter and the sensible world to render it aware and cognizant of that which is truly
real. Philosophy does this by cleaving or pulling the soul away from all that which is
alien to the soul, namely all that which is material and sensible, including
indulgence or intoxication with the sensual lusts and pleasures, which are seen as
an illness for the soul. In Platonism the healthy man is not one who has a sound
body but one whose soul is awake and truly alive, in other words one whose soul is
able to extricate itself from all that is lowly and sensible and withdraws into itself to
contemplate Reality. It has been mentioned earlier that Platonism views man as
being a composite entity consisting of a material or sensible aspect, known as the
body, and an immaterial and intelligible aspect, called the soul, and states that
human actions are not caused by the body but the cause of all human acts lies in
the soul, in other words the Platonists regard the soul as being the true cause of all
human acts and the employer of the body for the production and performance of
actions. To put it simply it can be said that the soul employs or utilizes the body for
producing actions, but the real agent is the invisible soul not the body. Therefore
when we see so in reality it is the soul that performs the seeing through the physical
eye, and when we hear it is the soul that performs the hearing through the physical
ear and so on to the effect that all sense perception is performed by the soul
through employing the body as a tool or an instrument, therefore in Platonism all
human motion and sense perception are caused by something invisible and
immaterial known as the soul. According to Platonism evil has no independent and
actual existence of its own but it is only the good which truly exists and therefore
has being and actuality, evil is merely the name given to the absence of good, in
other words evil is nothing but the privation of good, similarly heat and cold are
opposites of one another but it is only heat that has real being and cold is nothing
but the absence thereof, similarly out of life and death, it is life that exists truly and
actually whereas death is merely its absence and privation, not having any actual
being or existence of its own. Platonism distinguishes and differentiates between
sensible vision and intelligible vision, where the former is dependent on and
performed through the material body, meaning the physical eye, and cannot be
exercised in the absence of the requisite bodily organ, intelligible vision is
independent and not performed through the external bodily senses, but is instead
performed through the inner eye or the eye of the soul, meaning reason or intellect.

The product of sensible vision is sense perception whereas the product of intelligible
vision is real knowledge.