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

sentence other than death beneath his duty to act like a good man. On the other hand, one may logically argue that Socrates should nonetheless still strive towards a sentence that would allow him to continue his teachings and philosophy that he so stubbornly refutes to give up but his actions, I reasoned, do not reflect a man who is allowing his wisdom to die in vain.

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

death.
I think Socrates acted correctly and there is hardly anything one could criticize him for given all factors. In my view, he was arguably unblemished performance given this particular situation and his apparent motives and capabilities; it is apparent to me that he not only decided to avoid “[begging] and [supplicating] the judges with many tears, bringing forward his own children and many others of his family and friends, so as to be pitied as much as possible” (West, p. 34c) conserving all his beliefs and morals, but he genuinely attempted to convince the jury using only lawfully and reasonable maneuvers even peacefully accepting his punishment after the verdict. As seen by the close call, he almost managed to avoid death and today he is widely recognized and appraised so intentionally or not, he elevated his teachings and himself beyond the borders of Athens