In the Phaedo, Socrates argues that the body is attached to the soul but that the soul can exist independently of it. In fact, as the body drags the soul around, it only confuses the soul with its senses and does not allow the soul to obtain truth and wisdom. The only way the soul can find pure knowledge or reality is to become separate from the body since "the soul reasons best when none of the senses troubles it... but when it is

Descartes agrees with Plato that the mind and body are separable and infinite by using his method of doubt to show that he could not doubt the existence of his mind. As doubting involved thought, and thought needs a consciousness to think it, Descartes was sure that he could not doubt his mind existed: cogito ergo sum "I think therefore I am". He claims to know what a thinking think is, and he regards himself as a thinking thing.

Since our souls were alive before we existed, then according to Socrates, our souls exist after death also. Souls exist in two ways after death. If a person is good and follows the practices of philosophy, then their soul will "make its way to the invisible, which like itself, the divine and immortal and wise" (Plato 120). Here it will exist free of human ills such as ignorance, confusion, and fear, and spend its time with the gods. However, if a person thinks they know what they do not know and does not follow the practices of philosophy, then their soul will wander aimlessly until it is forced

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Approximate Word count = 697
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)