What Does Socrates Fear In Death
LITERATURE TERM PAPER
SOCRATES
NO FEAR IN DEATH
[Type the author name]
4/15/2014
Socrates did not choose to begin now at 70 years old and make choices which would have been contrary to who he was. He believed living long doesn’t matter, living well does. He lived a good, just, and ethical life and was poor because his life was spent on more noble things of the search of true wisdom, not of earthly self-pleasures of physical matters. He was the father of Philosophy and roamed the Athens’ Agora speaking, teaching, and asking questions of real wisdom, a kind of soul searching. He had many pupils and would seek others to find any true meaning of true knowledge. He felt like he didn’t know all things and questioned those who …show more content…
appeared to be learnt in certain areas to help him find real knowledge with wisdom. He surmised that the body and the soul are separate, and in life, we can never attain all that we yearn to know. Our soul is eternal and our physical bodies are temporal, so edifying the soul is one’s aim to practice for dying and death for a true Philosopher throughout one’s life.
He was tried in the Athenian Courts and found guilty, given the death sentence. He was accused of not believing in god and brainwashing the youth and influencing them. He made his defense but to no avail. His radical thinking and speaking made him very unpopular with those who governed the Athens society. His friends were allowed to visit him before his death sentence. He gave long discourses to explain goodness and justice and other strong truths of his Philosophy to argue his point to them. Truth is always truth and how he felt being an Athenian subject, it was only right to obey the laws, though wrong, right, or indifferent. He dialogues to them how suicide would not be a good thing to do because we belonged to the gods and they alone can dictate, our death, but not of oneself. He also was given the death sentence to drink hemlock poison until his death, so felt welcomed to do so and enter the death he felt a true Philosopher practices for all his life. In drinking the poison, which was his duty as a good, ethical, wise and just man, he felt was his penance by the laws of the homeland he loved and respected all his life. The irony was also his winning, being given the freedom to enter death where his soul can only prosper and reign as a god himself with other gods and other deserving souls eternally. The best goodness is after all, after death.
Socrates since a young lad felt it was his calling of the gods to spread his Philosophy and it was his duty to spend his life doing so.
“Be sure that this is what the god orders me to do, and I think there is no greater blessing for the city than my service to the god. For I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to or as strongly as for the best possible state of the soul.” (Apology 30 b) His quest and time spent led him to be poor, not prosperous as others. The life he led was seen as radical and strange so he was unpopular by many who were the majority who lived for self-pleasuring pursuits and wealth in their lives. He pursued matters of the soul, which are eternal and the body is physical, as is almost everything else, except God. He was the wisest man on earth and even the oracle of Delphos had prophesized it. He had many pupils and followers who also later became masters of Philosophy, as Plato. There doesn’t seem to be any inconsistencies in what Socrates taught of the nature of Philosophy as care for the soul and Philosophy as practice for …show more content…
death.
Our body being physical will perish and be forever gone upon death, yet our soul is separate and is eternal. Socrates held teachings using “Forms,” is transcendent to our own world and also is the essential basis of reality. Super-ordinate to matter, Forms are the most pure of all things. (anselm.edu,Forms of II) Our argument from unscatterability, we know the soul is unscatterable. Our soul is Form-like, so therefore-the soul is unscatterable. Forms don’t change, or have shapes or physicalness. Things with composites can scatter due to its molecular make-up and most things we know of or about in the natural realm belong to this group. Forms- Philosophers define as the true search of the soul and knowledge have a religious connotation, like goodness, beauty, justice, ethics, like a triangle. A triangle is a polygon with 3 sides, yet it is far from perfect. We use only our interpretation in our intelligence to allow us to know it is a triangle, yet the Form “triangle” is perfect and unchanging. It is exactly the same whenever anyone choses to consider it, so therefore, the time is that of the observer and not the triangle. “Forms” are never changing, pure, not physical, unified but don’t have parts. They are aspatial and atemporal, and not in the mind, yet they are extra-mental (i.e. real in the strictest sense of the world). Socrates taught of a world of ideal Forms, but said it was impossible to know it truly here. The world was created by the Good according to the patterns of Forms, mans’ implied cooperation of the ideal in the world of shadows; that is in miming the Good. The Forms are perfect themselves. The soul knows forms, so the care of the soul is the greatest endeavor in one’s life. It is in death, the soul is free to attain its goals as Philosophers, true lovers of wisdom.
Most of us live in our physical reality and pursuits of self-seeking pleasures therein. Socrates thought the body gets in the way and is busy dealing with needs for nurture. It impedes one on our search for truth. “If we are ever to have pure knowledge, we must escape from the body and observe matters in themselves within the soul by itself.” (Phaedo 66 e) Only in death will our soul be free, as lovers of wisdom to attain pure knowledge.
There exists some roots between Myth and Philosophy within the Greek Culture and Socrates did so within his final philosophical discussion of death. The word mythologia, in Greek translate to “story telling” and that’s how he made his last days shared in the final days awaiting his death sentence. (Zhu. Journal, pp.554) Socrates, a true philosopher regards death as a blessing and embraces it without fear. It is their true philosophical nature. Myth is inherently irrational, while philosophy is a rational enterprise. Though they can share a common vision and carry the same wisdom. This is where the decisive factor lies behind the two, of the Greek culture. They could both exchange their functions, because each in its own fashion honored truth. “The Greeks united the youthfulness of fantasy with the manliness of reason in a splendid humanity” (Schiller:38)
Philosophy and poetry can find common language because of their shared, insatiable curiosity toward the unknown (death and afterlife), and the Hellenic awareness of the insignificance of human conation and emotion. (Zhu:465)
Even today many of us study and follow Socrates and other great Philosophers which followed him, such as Plato. Philosophy is ongoing and a worthy pursuit of true wisdom and considered a true learning of higher thinking. All men can be better for the Philosophy Socrates contributed and left us. It is still relevant today in 2014, thousands of years later. His search for truth and his sincere efforts have not been in vain but deserving to live forever as long as this earth and its inhabitants can learn and exist. So, it is fitting that his memory shall be eternal, just as the soul.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.) PLATO, FIVE DIALOGUES. (EUTHYPHRO,APOLOGY,CRITO,MENO,&PHAEDO) Origin: Ancient Greek. Translated in English by: Professor G.M.A. GRUBE (1981) Excerpt from-APOLOGY,30 b. “Be sure that this is what the god orders me to do, and I think there is no greater blessing for the city than my service to the god. For I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to or as strongly as for the best possible state of the soul.”
2.) http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/platform.htm (Plato’s Theory of Forms) Excerpt of II-The Forms.
States that “Forms” are transcendent to our own world. Our Soul knows forms, so the care of the soul is the greatest endeavor. Highest form of being lives here, in the soul. (Socrates taught of a world of ideal forms, to his students-like PLATO which wrote of its theory, so we give him the actual credit.)
3.) PLATO, FIVE DIALOGUES. (EUTHYPHRO,APOLOGY,CRITO,MENO,&PHAEDO) Origin: Ancient Greek. Translated in English by: Professor G.M.A. GRUBE (1981) Excerpt from-PHAEDO,66 e. “If we are ever to have pure knowledge, we must escape from the body and observe matters in themselves within the soul by itself.”
4.) Oxford Journals: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139805. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol.73,No.2-pp.460 (Jun.,2005) MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY, Author: Rui Zhu. ‘The Greek way has always been a form of story-telling, as all Philosophers. They share similarities of wisdom and fantasy as they have been rooted from the Great Epics like of
Homer.’
5.) On The Aesthetic Education of Man. Author: Schiller, F., pp. 38 (1954) Trans. By R. Snell. New York: Friedrick Ungar Publishing. Schiller facts how ‘philosophy and mythology can share their wisdom in the vitality of the Greek culture, using fantasy, reason in a splendid humanity.’ 6.) Oxford Journals: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139805. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol.73,No.2-pp.465 (Jun.,2005) MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY, Author: Rui Zhu. ‘Philosophy and poetry share a curiosity of the unknown in death and the afterlife.’
SOCRATES
NO FEAR IN DEATH
[Type the author name]
4/15/2014
Socrates did not choose to begin now at 70 years old and make choices which would have been contrary to who he was. He believed living long doesn’t matter, living well does. He lived a good, just, and ethical life and was poor because his life was spent on more noble things of the search of true wisdom, not of earthly self-pleasures of physical matters. He was the father of Philosophy and roamed the Athens’ Agora speaking, teaching, and asking questions of real wisdom, a kind of soul searching. He had many pupils and would seek others to find any true meaning of true knowledge. He felt like he didn’t know all things and questioned those who …show more content…
appeared to be learnt in certain areas to help him find real knowledge with wisdom. He surmised that the body and the soul are separate, and in life, we can never attain all that we yearn to know. Our soul is eternal and our physical bodies are temporal, so edifying the soul is one’s aim to practice for dying and death for a true Philosopher throughout one’s life.
He was tried in the Athenian Courts and found guilty, given the death sentence. He was accused of not believing in god and brainwashing the youth and influencing them. He made his defense but to no avail. His radical thinking and speaking made him very unpopular with those who governed the Athens society. His friends were allowed to visit him before his death sentence. He gave long discourses to explain goodness and justice and other strong truths of his Philosophy to argue his point to them. Truth is always truth and how he felt being an Athenian subject, it was only right to obey the laws, though wrong, right, or indifferent. He dialogues to them how suicide would not be a good thing to do because we belonged to the gods and they alone can dictate, our death, but not of oneself. He also was given the death sentence to drink hemlock poison until his death, so felt welcomed to do so and enter the death he felt a true Philosopher practices for all his life. In drinking the poison, which was his duty as a good, ethical, wise and just man, he felt was his penance by the laws of the homeland he loved and respected all his life. The irony was also his winning, being given the freedom to enter death where his soul can only prosper and reign as a god himself with other gods and other deserving souls eternally. The best goodness is after all, after death.
Socrates since a young lad felt it was his calling of the gods to spread his Philosophy and it was his duty to spend his life doing so.
“Be sure that this is what the god orders me to do, and I think there is no greater blessing for the city than my service to the god. For I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to or as strongly as for the best possible state of the soul.” (Apology 30 b) His quest and time spent led him to be poor, not prosperous as others. The life he led was seen as radical and strange so he was unpopular by many who were the majority who lived for self-pleasuring pursuits and wealth in their lives. He pursued matters of the soul, which are eternal and the body is physical, as is almost everything else, except God. He was the wisest man on earth and even the oracle of Delphos had prophesized it. He had many pupils and followers who also later became masters of Philosophy, as Plato. There doesn’t seem to be any inconsistencies in what Socrates taught of the nature of Philosophy as care for the soul and Philosophy as practice for …show more content…
death.
Our body being physical will perish and be forever gone upon death, yet our soul is separate and is eternal. Socrates held teachings using “Forms,” is transcendent to our own world and also is the essential basis of reality. Super-ordinate to matter, Forms are the most pure of all things. (anselm.edu,Forms of II) Our argument from unscatterability, we know the soul is unscatterable. Our soul is Form-like, so therefore-the soul is unscatterable. Forms don’t change, or have shapes or physicalness. Things with composites can scatter due to its molecular make-up and most things we know of or about in the natural realm belong to this group. Forms- Philosophers define as the true search of the soul and knowledge have a religious connotation, like goodness, beauty, justice, ethics, like a triangle. A triangle is a polygon with 3 sides, yet it is far from perfect. We use only our interpretation in our intelligence to allow us to know it is a triangle, yet the Form “triangle” is perfect and unchanging. It is exactly the same whenever anyone choses to consider it, so therefore, the time is that of the observer and not the triangle. “Forms” are never changing, pure, not physical, unified but don’t have parts. They are aspatial and atemporal, and not in the mind, yet they are extra-mental (i.e. real in the strictest sense of the world). Socrates taught of a world of ideal Forms, but said it was impossible to know it truly here. The world was created by the Good according to the patterns of Forms, mans’ implied cooperation of the ideal in the world of shadows; that is in miming the Good. The Forms are perfect themselves. The soul knows forms, so the care of the soul is the greatest endeavor in one’s life. It is in death, the soul is free to attain its goals as Philosophers, true lovers of wisdom.
Most of us live in our physical reality and pursuits of self-seeking pleasures therein. Socrates thought the body gets in the way and is busy dealing with needs for nurture. It impedes one on our search for truth. “If we are ever to have pure knowledge, we must escape from the body and observe matters in themselves within the soul by itself.” (Phaedo 66 e) Only in death will our soul be free, as lovers of wisdom to attain pure knowledge.
There exists some roots between Myth and Philosophy within the Greek Culture and Socrates did so within his final philosophical discussion of death. The word mythologia, in Greek translate to “story telling” and that’s how he made his last days shared in the final days awaiting his death sentence. (Zhu. Journal, pp.554) Socrates, a true philosopher regards death as a blessing and embraces it without fear. It is their true philosophical nature. Myth is inherently irrational, while philosophy is a rational enterprise. Though they can share a common vision and carry the same wisdom. This is where the decisive factor lies behind the two, of the Greek culture. They could both exchange their functions, because each in its own fashion honored truth. “The Greeks united the youthfulness of fantasy with the manliness of reason in a splendid humanity” (Schiller:38)
Philosophy and poetry can find common language because of their shared, insatiable curiosity toward the unknown (death and afterlife), and the Hellenic awareness of the insignificance of human conation and emotion. (Zhu:465)
Even today many of us study and follow Socrates and other great Philosophers which followed him, such as Plato. Philosophy is ongoing and a worthy pursuit of true wisdom and considered a true learning of higher thinking. All men can be better for the Philosophy Socrates contributed and left us. It is still relevant today in 2014, thousands of years later. His search for truth and his sincere efforts have not been in vain but deserving to live forever as long as this earth and its inhabitants can learn and exist. So, it is fitting that his memory shall be eternal, just as the soul.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.) PLATO, FIVE DIALOGUES. (EUTHYPHRO,APOLOGY,CRITO,MENO,&PHAEDO) Origin: Ancient Greek. Translated in English by: Professor G.M.A. GRUBE (1981) Excerpt from-APOLOGY,30 b. “Be sure that this is what the god orders me to do, and I think there is no greater blessing for the city than my service to the god. For I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to or as strongly as for the best possible state of the soul.”
2.) http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/platform.htm (Plato’s Theory of Forms) Excerpt of II-The Forms.
States that “Forms” are transcendent to our own world. Our Soul knows forms, so the care of the soul is the greatest endeavor. Highest form of being lives here, in the soul. (Socrates taught of a world of ideal forms, to his students-like PLATO which wrote of its theory, so we give him the actual credit.)
3.) PLATO, FIVE DIALOGUES. (EUTHYPHRO,APOLOGY,CRITO,MENO,&PHAEDO) Origin: Ancient Greek. Translated in English by: Professor G.M.A. GRUBE (1981) Excerpt from-PHAEDO,66 e. “If we are ever to have pure knowledge, we must escape from the body and observe matters in themselves within the soul by itself.”
4.) Oxford Journals: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139805. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol.73,No.2-pp.460 (Jun.,2005) MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY, Author: Rui Zhu. ‘The Greek way has always been a form of story-telling, as all Philosophers. They share similarities of wisdom and fantasy as they have been rooted from the Great Epics like of
Homer.’
5.) On The Aesthetic Education of Man. Author: Schiller, F., pp. 38 (1954) Trans. By R. Snell. New York: Friedrick Ungar Publishing. Schiller facts how ‘philosophy and mythology can share their wisdom in the vitality of the Greek culture, using fantasy, reason in a splendid humanity.’ 6.) Oxford Journals: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139805. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol.73,No.2-pp.465 (Jun.,2005) MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY, Author: Rui Zhu. ‘Philosophy and poetry share a curiosity of the unknown in death and the afterlife.’