Socrates Views Of Death In Plato's The Apology

Although deeply illuminating, in my view, the philosophy behind Socrates and all of his actions in response to the accusations brought forth against him, as depicted in Plato’s “The Apology”, is ironically quite straightforward. To understand Socrates’ actions or rather lack of it to prevent a probable severe punishment, as far as this case goes, it is important to analyze two specific believes of him; his believe regarding death, and his belief about living. To begin with, Socrates clearly shows his complete acceptance of death as an innocuous end that should not justify any means, “if you suppose that a man who is of even a little benefit should take into account the danger of living or dying, but not rather consider this alone whenever he acts: whether his actions are just or unjust, and the deeds of a good man or a bad” (West, p. 28b) demoting an argument that would ease a

Rather, Socrates would have indeed preferred to continue his teachings peacefully without any criminal charges, but presented with this occasion, he implements his teaching fully and impressively for all to see. Then, to complete my understanding, I concluded, he would be allowing himself to have an “unexamined life [that] is not worth living” (West, p. 38a) if he testified in his defense with anything but the truth and reason. In the end, Socrates, I believe, never attempted to shield his beliefs to die a hero or to ignite his teaching with the rage that would be his death, but simply, his teachings beautifully left him no other clear choice than to continue his philosophical pursuit of outrunning wickedness by examining himself and others with nothing but reason even in the face of