Morality Depicted In Socrates 'The Apology'

When Socrates makes the claim that “a good man cannot be harmed in life or in death,” he does not mean this literally. Quite simply, any living creature on Earth is capable of being harmed, physically, mentally, or emotionally, and humans are of no exception to this. Rather, Socrates is stating that a man who lives with good, true intentions, and follows the moral conduct accepted by the greater of society, will not have his reputation, public image, or morality tainted, despite any attempt of others to degrade him.
This quote from Socrates comes at the end of The Apology, when he is being sentenced to death and therefore decided to educate the crowd around him why they are in the wrong, and are doing him a favor. In order to understand this better, one must first understand why Socrates is not at all afraid of death. He believes that since
there is nobody on Earth that has ever experienced death, and come back to explain what it is like. Most people would probably agree with this. What this means is that people have no reason to fear, or dread death. For all humanity is aware of, death could be the most pleasurable experience in a lifetime. Socrates therefore sees no point in fearing death, or seeing it as a negative consequence of his sentencing. Instead, he is unbothered by the idea, neither fearing nor looking forward to his death. If he has no reason to fear death, then, based upon his logic, Socrates has no reason to believe death will do him any harm.
Personally, I feel it is difficult to come to a finite conclusion as to whether or not I fully agree with what Socrates is saying here.
I concede that if a man is truly just, moral, and honest, there is no reason that he should be harmed on Earth. This, again, means that while he may receive harm in a physical, mental, or emotional way, a man will still carry the virtues of being just, moral, and honest. However, as we often discussed in class, the concept of morality is challenging to make universal. Many ethnicities or religions will disagree upon what is moral. Even more, while the majority if society may agree that something is moral, that does not deem it the undeniable definition of morality. What this means is that in order to accept this quote from Socrates, one must first acknowledge that they need to view morality and justice from his perspective. Any other interpretation of the words will inevitably falsify his claim and make it a pointless idea to even argue. That being said, when analyzing this from a Socratic perspective, I do agree with what he is saying. That being said I can only agree with part about
life.
I feel it is impossible to know, as Socrates has already said, what death is like. Nobody has that power and therefore any claim made about death can be discarded without consideration. Consequentially, when Socrates states that a man cannot be harmed in death, I am not sure what to make of it. I do not believe there is any possible way of knowing what might come to a good man (by Socrates’ definition) in death. There is nothing that leads us to trust that any form of an afterlife is anything like life on Earth. Therefore, I find it hard to accept that metaphorical harm, as we know in life, and as I imagine Socrates suggests would defame a man, has the same meaning or effect in death. I have to believe that there is the possibility of a good man being harmed in death, as disheartening as that may be.