Socrates Believes Suicide is Wrong

One of the entities Socrates has in mind is our human souls. He believes that our mind and bodies are two separate things and we should look forward to death. He argues that once your body is dead, your soul is separated from your body. Socrates believes suicide is wrong and when we are born, the gods are our guardian and we are their possessions, and it is wrong for us to destroy their possessions. Another perfect entity Socrates has in mind is knowledge.

According to Socrates, true knowledge is knowledge of the eternal and unchanging Forms that underlie perceptible reality. Our souls and knowledge is more important than our bodies because everything is always changing into its opposite. Day becomes night, night becomes day, sleeping turn to waking, waking turns to sleeping, life becomes death, and death becomes life. Everything that is greater than something must become greater after being less. I agree with Socrates argument that perfect entities are more worthy of our attention than imperfect entities. I agree with him because everything in life is either imperfect or imitating something that is already perfect.

With the harp analogy, Socrates is trying to illustrate a comparison between the harp and our minds. You have to move the strings a very specific way to achieve the harmony you want, but minds do not move a certain or specific way. If a string on the harp break, the harmony will stop, but this is not the case for the body and soul. If your body dies, your soul is still alive. If we arrange parts correctly, then the harp will be in tune and if we damage the parts, then we destroy the instrument.

The body is composed of several physical body parts and if they are arranged correctly, then we experience thinking. However, if we damage those parts, then we are unable to think. “My belief is that to have no wants is divine, and to have as few as possible is next to divine”, according to Socrates, a rich and active mind is much happier than buying lavish foods and luxurious clothing. Socrates argues that the best life is “a society in which only the basic needs of all members are satisfied”. For example, Socrates would agree that being wealthy and able to buy expensive things will not fulfill the best life. The best life is achieved by being happy with having your basic needs rather than materialistic objects.

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