The pursuit of philosophy, to Socrates, involves the denial of the body's desires due to their distraction to any intellectual engagement. For the acquirement of knowledge is an intellectual pursuit, one that the body confuses with faulty sensory information, Plato says through Socrates, "Now take the acquisition of wisdom; is the body a hindrance or not, if one takes it into partnership to share an investigation? What I mean is this: is there any certainty in human sight and hearing, or is it true, as the poets are always dinning into our ears, that we neither hear or see anything accurately?" (1) What we perceive though the senses has to be quantified constantly by the intellect. For example, a man seen in the distance is mistaken to be a woman, when the mistake is realized we do not jump to the conclusion

The last two arguments are raised to prove thoroughly that the soul exists after death, and that if it exists after death that it is truly immortal. The first of these proposes is that the soul has an attunement, like that of a musical instrument. The instrument being the representation of the physical body and the invisible tuning being that of the soul. The flaw with this argument is that it supposes the soul, like a tuning coming from the strings of an instrument, is dependent upon the physical components of the body. If the soul exists before the body then it can not be dependent upon its physical components to exist. An attunement of the soul also leads to the assumption that this attunement can vary, being more or less in tune. Giving rise to the theory that the body can affect the tuning of the soul, allowing the soul to be more or less in tune. Seeing that the soul can never be more or less of a soul it cannot have tuning. "Does that which is neither more or less in tune contain a greater or smaller proportion of attunement, or an equal one?" (11) "Then since no soul is any more or less than just a soul, it is neither more or less in tune." (12)

The frequent nature of the soul is an example of the frequent nature of the universe. To illustrate this Socrates gives his interpretation of how there are many different layers to the earth and how they coexist in a frequent pattern. For rivers cycle into the ocean which cycles into a great cavern, called Tartarus, that dissects the Earth allowing all water to circulate throughout the world. This frequent pattern also applies to the levels of beauty and divinity. For the gems and metals that we hold precious are in fact just pebbles descended from a reality that exists above us. For we live in hollows of the earth, that are filled with the dregs of the celestial ether that fills the universe. This ether flows down filling them with air, mists, and water. Where to the reality above us, what we call air to them is like our water, and the celestial ether, in it's pure form is their air. Likewise if they're where people living at the bottom of the ocean they would in turn treat the water as air. This is all very metaphoric, and colorful, but describes the different levels of understanding and perspective associated with knowledge. If the soul is immortal then it is living itself. By means of recollection we attribute the imperfect sensual images of objects to be representations of various perfect attributes them.

With the soul existing before the body, the soul cannot have attunement for it implies that the soul is dependent upon the body for its existence. Therefore the truth to an object in itself and by itself can not be contained in the physical representation given to us by the senses, therefore a philosopher should, in the search of truth, disregard the sensual distractions of the body. Allowing the intellect to be as free as possible for philosophical contemplation. With the abandonment of the physical the philosopher is given greater ability to practice his or her search for truth. Thus, the philosopher, being in pursuit of the truth is also in the pursuit of death as means to gain absolute truth. For only through death is it possible for the soul be completely free of the confines and distractions of the body, the state that is necessary for pure contemplation. This cyclic nature of life and death, of understanding and confusion, is an outline of what philosophy is, and how it leads to the acquirement of absolute knowledge.

Besides the process

Some common words found in the essay are:
Plato Socrates, Socrates Plato, Cebes Simmias, body soul, philosophical investigation, opposite opposite, soul body, distractions body, frequent nature, Plato's Phaedo, dependent physical components, object itself, partake opposite, perfect attribute, communication communication,
Approximate Word count = 2383
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)