Deal Directly With The Issue Of Death - Essay Example

Deal Directly With The Issue Of Death The ‘Apology of Socrates by’ Plato is all about the scenario of death sentence being implied to Socrates and the way in which he confronts it. Socrates like others is not afraid of death rather he believes that fear of death is the nature of an ignorant man. He is of the opinion that neither he is feared of death nor he wants to avoid it. According to him a good man should not be scared of death and consider it as an evil. He is right in arguing so as death is a transition period of soul where it moves to another body to burn its fruits of action or deeds. An intelligent person should understand the reality of life and accept death with full heartedness. Whereas in Seneca’s ‘on shortness of life’, he explains the life is not short as people think if it is used in the right manner. Nature has given enough time to human being to accomplish what they want. He sees natural phenomena as metaphor for life. So death is a natural process to him, which has to be dealt with courage and willingness. According to him human spirit should adapt to the natural law of death. He claims that human beings are bad soldiers who do not follow the commands of God. This is very true as it can be seen widely that human beings have always acted opposite to God’s commands and rules. It is natural for beings that are once born to die and accepting it is the wisdom in real man. In the same manner Socrates also suggests that man should neither fear in life nor in death. From his thinking we can understand the greatness of him. The first and worst fear of a human being is death and one who advocates fearlessness to death indeed is a genius. A man who is spiritually educated never will have concern in dying as he knows it is a hard truth. He will respect and obey the law of nature and enjoy both life and death equally. This is because he knows that soul is immortal and nothing can kill it or destroy it. In apology, Socrates gives his genuine perspective on death to people. Socrates reveals that souls are immortal and live forever. It is a fact that soul existed along with God and has been given physical form to be tested by him. He believes that soul exist before the person and will exist forever when the body perishes. In regard to his death penalty, Socrates responded that his physical body can only perish but not his eternal soul. This is the true nature of human soul and death is just a phase in its journey. Socrates claims that feelings arise from knowledge and since he has no knowledge about death he is not afraid of it. He believes that death is a kind of blessing. This is because; death can give opportunity to a person to go to world he has not been before. There he is able to meet his ancestors and can test them and be in touch with them. This is true as nobody have any idea of where we will go after death and it would be a new experience for human beings to die and know the truth. So in such a case, one should look forward to death which is going to be an exciting experience. Seneca believes that the fear of death is the underlying philosophical root of most other human fears. Seneca like Socrates also believed in the immortal nature of soul. In “shortness of life” Seneca mentions that one should think about life rather than death and analyze what is important in life. One should find right attitude to time, and to value and allocate time in the right way. This is very right way of seeing life as people should utilize their time in doing good and being good. In 'Consolation to Helvia', Seneca consoles his mother by saying that material comforts are not the end of life. He explains about the relationship of Man with God and position of a person in the universe. It is true that once we understand our relationship with God we would not be afraid of death. One should understand the working of the natural world to eradicate the fear in the mind about death. Also Socrates in his apology mentions that he has no feeling or emotions about death. He explains that it is not possible to harm a good person nor in death or in life and the goodness of people is always regarded by God. Socrates believes that his duty is to preach virtue to people of Athens and only death can stop him from doing so. He argues that, he cannot stop talking, inquiring or questioning purpose of life .He neither wants to plead for mercy nor stop his death. This shows the wisdom and greatness of Socrates and how he perceives life and death. He suggests that, evil cannot affect a good man. This is the real way in which a common man should face life and death .A man should dedicate his life in doing good and educating people morality and ethics of life. Death will come at its time, no matter whether we fear it or not, and what ultimately counts is how morally we have lived our lives. Socrates directs his people to spend the life in virtuous and good deeds. According to him, life should be productive and a service to society. According to him, man should not think about his chances of dying or living but think about whether he is doing right or wrong while alive. It is often seen in this world that people just want to enjoy life even though they do evil deeds. People are not ready to sacrifice anything for good; they are concerned about satisfying one even though it harms others. Even if it is a short life, it is important that one leads a pure and virtuous life. It is not the quantity of life but the quality which really matters. In ‘Shortness of Life’ too Seneca holds the same ideas like Socrates that living life long is not important but living it qualitatively is essential. People should not waste their life in luxury but understand the real purpose of life and his relationship with God. He mentions that human should not blame nature as she has abundantly provided us with everything what we need. This is true and only thing we need to do is respect nature and God and live a life which is full of goodness. Nature gives us enough time to do the real pursuit of life, but man in his greed to luxury wander away time. A man should never be lazy and unintelligent but hardworking and wise. In ‘Tranquility of mind’ Seneca declares that God loves good men and he influences them to do goodness due to his love for them. He also claims that happiness from outside world is temporary and one can achieve happiness only by experiencing oneself. He is right in his thoughts as we can observe that material comfort cannot give us happiness and tranquility for a longer period. He believes that tranquility is an essential component in human life so as to maintain balance with the cosmos. We can understand that we are a part of the cosmic universe and it operates in tranquility and so should be our nature too. Finally, we can understand that virtuous life is more important and death is not a matter to be thought of. Read More