Socrates And The Afterlife
Socrates & the Afterlife
Socrates & the Afterlife
“When I have drunk the poison I shall leave you and go to the joys of the blessed…” (Plato, p.67) In his final hours, as written in Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates spoke of death and the afterlife while awaiting his execution. Socrates was tried and convicted of two charges: corrupting the youth and impiety (blasphemy), he was imprisoned and sentenced to death. According to his final words, Socrates does not seem to fear death but instead sees it as a release of his soul from his physical body; “…beyond question, the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will truly exist in another world!” (Plato, p.63) Socrates lack of fear in death appears to be greatly influenced by his beliefs that after ones physical body is “relieved” their soul lives on for all eternity. He argued that the philosopher spends his life training to detach ones soul from the needs of the body, and that the soul takes the nurture and education with it on its journey to the world after.
His views on the afterlife and death are very deep and he has what I see to be somewhat of a death ‘flow chart’, he has it all mapped out based on what he spoke. In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates goes on to explain that the souls travels to the other world, or afterlife, are not a straight path as others have stated. In his opinions the soul leaves the body and travels to be judged and if the soul had acted impurely while in the body it would be ignored and left to wander alone in the other world until enough time would pass to make up for its wrongdoings (similar to the catholic idea of penance). He believed that when the dead would arrive at the other world if any were impure they would travel through Acheron, which is a river in the underworld where those whose lives on Earth were meaningless or impure would be cleansed and then released; those whose souls were incurable were sent to Tartarus (torment pit, Hell) for the rest of eternity. He did say that
Socrates & the Afterlife
“When I have drunk the poison I shall leave you and go to the joys of the blessed…” (Plato, p.67) In his final hours, as written in Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates spoke of death and the afterlife while awaiting his execution. Socrates was tried and convicted of two charges: corrupting the youth and impiety (blasphemy), he was imprisoned and sentenced to death. According to his final words, Socrates does not seem to fear death but instead sees it as a release of his soul from his physical body; “…beyond question, the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will truly exist in another world!” (Plato, p.63) Socrates lack of fear in death appears to be greatly influenced by his beliefs that after ones physical body is “relieved” their soul lives on for all eternity. He argued that the philosopher spends his life training to detach ones soul from the needs of the body, and that the soul takes the nurture and education with it on its journey to the world after.
His views on the afterlife and death are very deep and he has what I see to be somewhat of a death ‘flow chart’, he has it all mapped out based on what he spoke. In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates goes on to explain that the souls travels to the other world, or afterlife, are not a straight path as others have stated. In his opinions the soul leaves the body and travels to be judged and if the soul had acted impurely while in the body it would be ignored and left to wander alone in the other world until enough time would pass to make up for its wrongdoings (similar to the catholic idea of penance). He believed that when the dead would arrive at the other world if any were impure they would travel through Acheron, which is a river in the underworld where those whose lives on Earth were meaningless or impure would be cleansed and then released; those whose souls were incurable were sent to Tartarus (torment pit, Hell) for the rest of eternity. He did say that
References: Plato. (1871). Phaedo. Phaedo, 1-70.