s of philosophical inquiry. Socrates believes that the entire philosophical endeavor is a preparation for death and that the true philosopher looks forward to dying. His students, however, cannot understand why the philosopher should want to die, and Socrates hopes to dispel their fears of death while bringing them to an awareness of a figurative death where desires cease to control the soul . In addition to noticing the figurative nature of death, he also wants them to give further consideration to the literal death as well. The distinction between these two types of death, figurative and literal, creates two possibleavenues for the philosophical life. Socrates defines death as the release of the soul from the body . This definition implies both a view of death as placing distance between the soul and the body during this life and a complete separation at the moment of death. The responsibility of the philosopher is to seek liberation here in this life and, in so doing, to prepare for the afterlife, as preparation for both the literal and figurative deaths coalesce into a single activity. Liberation here in the visible realm comes from recognizing the hindering function of the body in the soul's search for knowledge. Socrates comments that a soul associated too closely with thebody will be "infected" by the body's nature , leading to difficulties: the process by which the body obtains its understanding and the distracting nature of desires corrupt the soul's vision. Indeed, Socrates first notes that a soul which relies on the body for information will be led away from truth. The eyes and ears obtain impressions of oppositions, such largeness and smallness. Often each opposite characteristics can be seen in the same thing at the same time, and the senses frequently misjudge the nature of the item being perceived. Since the senses act as an authority for the body, this fleeting multiplicity of experience comes to co...
