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Socrates Double Meaning Of Death Analysis

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Christopher Aguirre
Professor Eric Wickey
PHR 100-002
17 February 2017

The Double Meaning of Death in the Eyes of Socrates

Plato’s Apology was supposed to represent Socrates’ trial for his being a nuisance and corrupting the youth. Socrates defended himself by saying that he was merely performing service to the god that said that he was wiser than anyone else. This defense did not work, and he lost the trial. Socrates remained defiant during the sentencing portion of the trial, which led to him be sentenced to death, and as such he had to face his mortality. Socrates viewed death as not being an unscrupulous entity. In this paper, I will explain his two meanings of death, difference between both meanings, and argue the one I believe in.
At many points throughout the Apology, Socrates insists that death is not bad. As he says, “To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what ones does not know” (pg. 33). However, it is not until page 38 when he begins his discussion of the issue in depth by saying, “Let us reflect in this way, too, that there is good hope that death is a blessing.” When considering death, …show more content…

Although his argument was valid (his conclusions followed necessarily from his premises, if we should accept those premises as true), it was not comprehensive. This is because it was based on faulty premises. First, the “death as dreamless sleep” analogy is flawed. If death were like dreamless sleep, it would not seem like a single night because there is no waking up afterwards. The actual experience of sleeping, or even dreamless sleeping, is not actually good, because we are not conscious during it, which renders us powerless to gain pleasure from it throughout it. We only consider it good once we wake up afterwards and feel well rested. However, with death as a dreamless sleep, there is no waking up afterwards, only never-ending

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