Socrates: The Fear Of Death

Socrates was a philosopher who pursued what the ‘many’ did not even regard, he analyzes the deeper meaning and truth of things providing himself with an insight and view on a more intellectual and virtuous level than most. He was a very a critical thinker that involved skepticism in his every day rational, questioning the thoughts he had and the thoughts that others had around him repeatedly examining common beliefs. Due to this outlook he possessed and the gods’ wisdom, Socrates made it his command to get those around him to question their own beliefs. As it is imaginable, the “wise” men of Athens ultimately began to get annoyed and pestered by the constant questioning Socrates did especially because he often made them look foolish and embarrassed …show more content…
He abandoned his post for fear of death or anything else ever since he was appointed by the god to live the life of a philosopher and examine himself and others (28.e). The fear of death to Socrates is completely irrelevant for the reason that there is no definite explanation for what comes after death. To assume the worst of death and consider it a bad thing would be to assume knowledge and wisdom that is unable to be achieved (29.a). Socrates expresses the fact, that for all men know, death could be one of the greatest blessings that can be given, yet almost all men fear it to be one of the greatest evils (29.a). Socrates developed two theories he had about what occurs after death, he came to the idea that death is either a deep, dreamless sleep with no perception of anything or it is a change and a relocation for the soul from where it is to another place (40.d). Socrates draws attention to the wrongly and unjustly convicted heroes such as Palamedes and Ajax that are in Hades (41.b). He says that it would bring him extraordinary happiness to be able to converse with these and many other men who died through an unjust conviction and compare his experience with theirs (41.b). He thinks that it would be an excellent opportunity to continue questioning, testing, and examining people in a place where he surely would not be convicted for doing so (41.c). In any form, death to Socrates is not a bad thing, death brings upon the capability of being able to pursue philosophy for the rest of eternity, something every philosopher strives and dreams for. Death to Socrates is something that should not be regarded to any sense of fear for the reasons that he abandoned his stand for fear when he was commanded by the god to pursue philosophy, that death cannot be claimed as a negative thing because it is unknown and doing so would claim he encapsulates wisdom in which he does