Nietzsche's charge that Socrates is anti-life appears to be driven merely by disgust and not proven by fact. I say this mainly because the majority of Nietzsche's accusations in "The Problem of Socrates" were either negative statements against Socrates physical appearance or inaccurate accounts that he possibly just misunderstood. Therefore, with Nietzsche's invalid charges we can not consider Socrates anti-life.

One of Nietzsche's first mistakes is in his opening paragraph of "The Problem of Socrates". Nietzsche starts out by intentionally placing a label on the wisest sages by claiming that "the wisest sages of all times have reached the same judgment about life: it's worthless. . . Always and everywhere we have heard the same sound coming from their mouths-a sound full of doubt, full of melancholy, full of fatigue with life, full of hostility to life" (p. 12). This is a false and inadequate statement about the wisest sages or at least the, wise sage, Socrates. In Plato's Apology Socrates was not full of melancholy instead he was filled up with justification. Socrates tried to think of his sentence in a more positive aspect by thinking that death wouldn't b

In another passage Nietzsche once again accuses Socrates of being anti-life when he proclaims that "Socrates wanted to die: not Athens, but he gave himself the poison cup, he forced Athens to give him the poison cup" (p. 17). Nietzsche's statement is purely a justification for the wrong that was done to Socrates during his trail. What Nietzsche failed to realize was that it is not that Socrates wanted to die, it is that he was taking a stand. Socrates simply just wanted to be heard. Just because one is willing to face death for what he or she believes in does not mean that one craves death or one is anti-lfe. Socrates believes that "whenever a man has taken a position that he believes to be best, or has been placed by his commander, there he must I think remain and face danger without thought of death or anything else, rather than disgrace" (p. 33). Socrates believed in taking a stand for what he believed in even if it meant death. This is something that many have done since the beginning of time. In the bible when those who confessed before men that they believed in God, knew that they would be killed. Should we come to think that these men are anti-life or were they simply just standing up for their faith in God? Socrates here is implying that it is better to stand for something in life than to live life believing in nothing. With this statement Socrates is willing to die than cease his practice of philosophy. Socrates believes that this is the will of the gods for him to philosophize with such wisdom. If it were not, his divine sign would have not permitted him to do so.

When faced with death Socrates did not fear it, but that does not make him anti-life. Many people interpret not having fear of the unknown as an indication of knowledge and experience in the matter. Socrates differed from many men mainly because he did not claim to know anything about death or things in the underworld. No one truly knows whether death is a blessing

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Approximate Word count = 1328
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)