Socrates on death

A detailed Summary of Socrates on death

Why are we mistaken death to be an evil?

Is death an evil, and what really happens after we die? These are questions that people have asked themselves for thousands of years. And I really don't think anyone has found the correct answer to this, at least not as I know of. Socrates, one of our ancient Greek philosophers had his arguments that death is not an evil, and he also believed in immortality of the soul. Himself was sentenced to death, and many critics believe that he went on a suicide trip the day he went in to the court to get his sentence, either death, or a fine. Some people mean that what he said to his defence only got him-self deeper into trouble. However that is not the importance of this essay. It is what he said, and why he said it. I am going to look into the parts I believe is of importance to the question of this essay, why, according to Socrates are we mistaken death to be an evil? Why can one of the major philosophers of our history believe that death is not an evil, and that the soul is immortal? He has many arguments for this, and I will take a deeper view into the ones that I think is essential to mention in this essay.

First of all I am going to look at what Socrates addres

Death is either (1) the annihilation of a person together with his or her consciousness or else (2) a journey of sorts in which the soul goes from this place here to another place. It is the first of these two things, then it is like a profound, dreamless sleep, and if so, then eternity would seem no more than a single night. But if this is what death would seem, then death would be a blessing. On the other hand if it's the second of these two things, then the dead will get to converse with others in the realm of the dead; they will get to live out the rest of the eternity under ruler-ship of just judges; and best of all, among their options will be the life of a Socrates, cross-questioning the dead as Socrates cross-questioned the living, and they won't have to fear that the dead will put them to death for that. To be able to live in their way with the death would be a wonderful thing indeed. So, either way, death must be good, and so it cannot be an evil thing to die. (40c-41a)

Socrates believes in an existence of a world of Forms when he argues that the soul enters a world distinct from our reality after death while maintaining its personal identity. (72e-77b)With this he says that he remains the same person or can I say keep the same personality as before, he doesn't change into something worse, and he doesn't become better in any way. Our apparent ability for recollection indicates that we existed before birth and at that time had knowledge of Forms. After Socrates has convinced the audience of the existence of a "dwelling place for souls", it is illustrated that the soul likely makes the transition into this world without being damaged.( 78b-84b). To this end, he argues in the first part that during the lifetime of a person the body is like "the divisible", it is not likely to be scattered and dissipated during death, especially if it was nurtured by practising philosophy. (84b)

In the fourth argument Socrates needs to make an assumption, namely that Forms exist. (100b) Socrates argues by using metaphors that opposite Forms do not allow each other to approach: they either perish or withdraw. (104c) He extends the argument to attributes of Forms and concludes that the soul does not admit death because death is opposite to that which the soul brings along, namely life. Because the soul does not admit death it will not give up its life principle, i.e., it will always withdraw rather than gradually wear itself out, and it is concluded that "...the soul, besides being deathless, is indestructible" (106d)

Socrates claims that states who are opposites in extremes, must come into being from their opposites. A thing who becomes larger for instance, does so necessarily from a state which is smaller. It seems then that largeness comes into being from smallness. Likewise heat comes into being from cold, and life comes into being from death. It is then apparent that change is circular. Things must pass from one state and then bask again, otherwise all things would be large, or hot, or dead, and the opposite would be meaningless. Here is where Socrates proposes the idea of reincarnat

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Approximate Word count = 2095
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous