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Death As Depicted In Socrates's Speech 'Apology'

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What Socrates tries to convey to Athenians in his speech “Apology” other than “an unexamined life is not worth living” is that one should never give up one’s own philosophy for any reason, even though the reason is death. Socrates wanted his followers to know that death should not be feared. Socrates knows he is going to die, and he still continues his beliefs in the trial anyway. Socrates wants his followers to stick to what they believe in. Socrates pretty much has all of Athens against him and yet he continues on and sends a strong message to his followers.
Socrates considers that to carry on with a just life is superior to simply live. Socrates is not saying that living is not essential and that he ought to simply discard his life, he …show more content…

Death should never be an obstacle for a philosopher. No man has true knowledge of death. We have no cause or reason to fear death. The majority of the Athenians are in this mindset that death is the greatest evil of all. “No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils” (29b). They would do or say anything to preserve their lives. What Socrates sees is that fearing death is to greatly assume that one knows what one does not know. One cannot for sure say that death is of something that is bad if one does not have knowledge of death. If one is to have fear, it should be of something you know it is to be bad, not of something that is unknown to you. "I do know…that it is wicked and shameful to do wrong, to disobey one’s superior, he be god or man. I shall never fear or avoid things of which I do not know whether they may not be good rather than things that I know to be bad" (29b). Socrates is not saying he is not afraid of anything, actually, what he is truly saying is that he would be afraid of doing something that he is well aware to be bad that could potentially harm his soul, by doing

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