Plato

1532 Words4 Pages

One should not fear death because the lack of knowledge of death’s benefits or ill effects. In the book Apology, Socrates argues how fearing death is equivalent to being ignorant. First, Socrates points out that nobody knows whether death is beneficial or not. The next point he makes is that to fear death is to think one knows that death is a bad thing when they really have no idea if death is a bad thing, therefore one is ignorant. Socrates then states that one should not be ignorant. The two previous points explain and create the conclusion. The conclusion is that one should not fear death. Socrates strongly believes in deductive reasoning which means that one who believes the first two points must believe the conclusion and vice versa. For example, a person cannot agree that to fear death is ignorant, but be doubtful that that to fear death is to think one knows what death is bad when one has no idea if death is bad or not; that would be inductive reasoning. Socrates argues that fearing death is ignorant. He says it is ignorant because one does not have any knowledge whether death is good or bad. There is a lack of knowledge on the subject of death because nobody lives through death to record it. One may argue with that in today’s society, but with modern technology and medical advancements it is now possible to bring someone back to life within a small amount of time that they have passed. Yes, there are a few accounts of this happening, but they did not have that kind of technology or skills back in Socrates’ day. Most people would find the unknown and unrecorded instances intimidating. However, Socrates would argue to not fear the unknown because it has the same chance of being beneficial or detrimental. Fo... ... middle of paper ... ...y, but one can be happy and not receive virtue. The last step is happiness yielding the good life. To have the good life, one has to achieve all of the previous steps. Socrates said, “…that a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death” (41d). To explain that, Socrates is saying that one should not fear death if they are a “good” person because they will not be harmed; the person will live the good life of happiness and they will be rewarded by the gods after death. Socrates is all about what is pious and what is not pious or what is just and what is unjust. He believes that one should focus on being pious so that they do not have to stress and worry over death. Doing pious or impious acts are in a person’s control, however death is unavoidable and out of someone’s control. Overall, one should not stress over death, but rather enjoy the here and now.

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