As mortal beings, we have to face death eventually and what happens after that? No one knows the answer. It is up to us to determine whether we still exist in the so-called “afterlife” and what proof do we have to justify that we are indeed “alive” in the realm known to us as “afterlife” which may not exist? Even if we do exist, what do we exist as? This is something that philosophers have tried to uncover over the years. In this essay, I will be covering the idea of death and its relation to the idea of separation between self and the world as described by Plato, Descartes and Tagore so as to better discuss on the topic on our existence after death and how we could comprehend such existence based on their theories.
First of all, Plato believes that the idea of death is related to the idea of separation between self and the world as he pictures death as “giving up the ghost” (Phaedo 64c) that is of death, the soul leaves the body and move on to the superior world of Forms and this illustrates the separation of self from the world. He also defines a person to be a being who is composed of two separate components such as the body and the soul and when he passed on, his soul would be separated from the “jail” known as the body and this soul is known to be immortal and would live and move on to the world of Forms. This suggests that the self is being separated from the world as the body would perish and the soul would continue to exist, but it will move on to the world of Forms (Phaedo 80d-81a). Plato thus conceives man as a compound of two different substances: the body, which ties us to the sensible world and the soul, which removes us from this material sphere and relates us to a superior world of Forms. Human soul is understood as immortal and it has a superior destiny than the body. This superiority comes from the fact that the soul, contrary to the body, is in essence most divine part of us based on principle of knowledge and morals. Moreover, the body is ruled by corruption and death, the reason of our ignorance and our wrongness whereas the soul is immortal. Plato begins the Western traditional thought for which the body and its passions are mainly responsible for all our pains, misfortunes and sufferings; man is guilty simply because he has a body, ideas particularly true for Christianity. The soul therefore seeks its freedom from the body and practices philosophy as an intellectual approach to the world it authentically belongs to, the superior world of Forms.
Descartes and Plato share some similarities and differences in their beliefs towards the idea of death and its relationship to the idea of separation between self and the world. Their beliefs are similar in terms of the notion of the soul leaving the body upon death as they are two separate entities and the soul is immortal whereas the body is finite and will perish due to natural occurrences. However when it comes to the idea of separation between self and world, Plato stated that the soul would move on to the world of Forms which is not mentioned by Descartes implying that the self is not separated from the world after death as even when the body perishes, the soul is not separated from the world. Descartes believes that a person is composed of a “mind” or also known to be the soul and “body” based on his theory of "Cartesian Dualism” and he finds more truth in knowledge than personal senses which can be deceiving and inaccurate. His quote, “I think therefore I am”, suggests that he is alive based on the fact that his mind is thinking. He also argues that the meditating “I” is a thinking, non-extended thing that is capable of being separated from its extended, non-thinking body, and, thus, can exist without it. This shows that the “mind” is indeed a separated entity from the “body” and the soul is immortal. From this distinction, the soul would continue to exist even when the body decays as the body is known to be an extended, non-thinking substance that makes up the entire material or physical world. The body would perish and die due to natural occurrences which results from the change of its parts. Thus the soul would leave the body once the body perishes. Even if the soul is immortal and not separated from the world upon death as it leaves the body once the body perishes, we would not be able to trace our existence once we passed on as soul is unquantifiable. A solution would be an application known as the “Augmented Eternity App” which allows users to create “digital persona”, of themselves through the documentation of their daily lives. This resonates with Descartes theory of the immortal soul as the mind that the artificial intelligence is given, such as the “digital persona”, would not die nor decay and will keep getting stronger based on the input from the users so as to make more logical responses whereas the system it is being attached to, which also resembles a body as they are made of the same material substance, as described by Descartes may break down or perish due to natural occurrences. This insinuates that the soul would continue to exist in the world as it leaves the body that contains it and the body would perish after death.
Lastly, Tagore’s approach towards the idea of death and its relationship to the idea of separation between self and the world is linked to that of Plato and Descartes as he believes that all man must know how to separate his soul from his body which causes him pain and suffering, greed and pride, fear and death so that his soul can achieve freedom. This can be done through death where the soul could attain freedom from being trapped in the body in the physical world. Tagore goes on to say that the separation of self and world is integral to a person who needs to be saved and only death can save him in terms of setting his soul free from the pain and suffering that the body has given him. This can be observed through his writing of Red Oleanders. “Tagore is telling the truth when he says, It (the play) is a vision that has come to me in the darkest hour of dismay. The dark hour of dismay which Tagore is experiencing is same as Petronius and Eliot have experienced. The craving of the soul in distress is the desire of emancipation” and “In fact, a sceptical voice is heard in the melee: Shall we be able to win through?, to which the more experienced King has a ready answer: we shall at least be able to die! . . . I have found the meaning of death. I am saved. These show that the soul is seeking freedom from the physical body and death is the avenue that can save it from the entrapment of the body. Tagore also goes on to say that “When a man’s life rescued from distractions finds unity in the soul, then the consciousness of the infinite becomes at once direct and natural to it as the light is to flame,” which implies that when a person passes on, he will be saved from distractions caused by his senses. This also signifies that his soul would be set free from the entrapment of the body thereby becoming infinite. Tagore quoted, “It is only the soul, the one in man which by its nature can overcome all limits and finds its affinity with the supreme one” which justifies that the soul is supreme and once it obtains freedom by separating itself from the body through the process of death.
In essence, the soul would only be set free from the body after death to attain the freedom which is a common belief shared by the three philosophers. Our existence after death is mainly related to the soul that is immortal, as justified by the three philosophers. Since the body perishes after death, the soul is the sole medium that we could relate to when we pass on to afterlife due to its nature of immortality. The soul is the closest medium that we could make reference to when it comes to questioning our existence in afterlife and we must accept this fact whether we like it or not. One day, when we reach the stage of death, we may eventually get enlightenment on our real existence in the so-called “afterlife”. This day will come and let us await this day so as to seek the answer to this question that pertains to our life after death.