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Section 64

"Those who practice philosophy rightly are secretly practicing nothing else but dying and being dead. But if this is true, it would be strange if they spent their whole lives eagerly anticipating this one thing, yet when it came, they were aggrieved at what they had so long anticipated and practiced." Simmias laughed and said, "By Zeus, Socrates, you have made me laugh, though I was not much in the mood for laughing just now. I think the multitude, if they heard what you just said about philosophers, would agree with you completely, and our people back home would say, 'Very true! Philosophers are indeed half-dead, and we are well aware that they deserve to be completely dead!'" "And they would be speaking the truth, Simmias—except they are not 'well aware.' For they do not know in what sense true philosophers are half-dead, or in what sense they deserve death, or what kind of death. But let us bid farewell to them and converse among ourselves. Do we believe death is a real thing?" "Certainly," said Simmias. "Is it anything else than the separation of the soul from the body? And being dead is this: the body having come to be by itself, apart from the soul, and the soul having come to be by itself, apart from the body. Is death anything else but this?" "No, it is exactly that," he said. "Consider then, my good friend, if you share my opinion on this; for from this I think we will gain a better understanding of our investigation. Does it seem to you characteristic of a philosopher to be earnest about the so-called pleasures—for instance, the pleasures of food and drink?" "Least of all, Socrates," said Simmias. "What about the pleasures of sex?" "Not at all." "What about the other cares of the body? Do you think such a man values them highly? For example, the acquisition of distinguished clothes and shoes and other bodily adornments—does he value them, or does he despise them, except insofar as there is a great necessity to use them?" "I think the true philosopher despises them," he said. "So does it not seem to you that the entire concern of such a man is not with the body, but rather, as far as he can, he frees himself from it and turns his attention toward the soul?" "It does." "Therefore, is it not clear in these very matters that the philosopher above all other men strives to release the soul from its communion with the body?" "Clearly." "Yet it seems to the majority of mankind, Simmias, that whoever finds no pleasure in such things and takes no part in them is not worthy to live; but that a man who cares nothing for the pleasures that come through the body is leaning closely toward death." "You speak the exact truth."