Question

In the Phaedo, Socrates says that the body is an obstacle in the search for knowledge. This may strike you as an odd thing to say. Don't we acquire knowledge empirically through observations by our bodily senses? So, what does Socrates mean by this? Why does he think that the body is an obstacle in the search for knowledge? Do you agree? Why or why not?

Answer 1

It is true that sense organs are integral part of our body. We perceive different types of knowledge through our sense organs. Hence our body is medium of process of acquiring knowledge. It is also a fact that we remain concerned abut the needs of body.

This is the reason that if same thing is being told to two different persons then both of them will interpret that saying in a different manners. No two persons can perceive same thing in same form. Some people find winters as pleasant while some prefer summers.

Some people say that when we gain true spiritual knowledge then we loose emotional attachment with this body. It means that body remains there as an obstacle which keep on restricting our soul to gain a true essence of knowledge.

We may feel our outside world through our senses. We touch, see, smell and feel different objects. We gain knowledge about materialistic things in our surroundings. That knowledge remains separated from wisdom. This wisdom comes from exposures and experiences.

Different moral values remain far away from the reach of this materialistic world . We feel true knowledge through our spirit and soul. Our physical needs keep on binding us with different different tasks. We remain in search of pleasure but remain unsatisfied for whole life.

All these happen because of body and search of pleasures for this body. We feel satisfaction only after gaining true knowledge.