Dying And Death In Plato's Apology

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Plato’s Five Dialogue is consist of five sections, all centered around Socrates’s life, before his death. In Apology, Socrates is in a trial, due to being accused of three things: corrupting the youth, not believing in the gods of the city, and believing in supernatural things. At the end of his trial, he is sentenced to death. In Phaedo, we learned that Socrates does not die right after his trial ended but was in prison for a couple of months. Right, before his death he has a talk with many of his friends and brings out the idea that philosophy is a way to practice dying and death. I believe that Socrates means by this, is that we should try to accept reality the way it is. To being with, during his trial, Socrates is conscious of the…show more content…
Throughout his trial, he brings out the idea that he will die on his own “You see in my age, that I am already advanced in years and close to death.” (38 d) This, however, seems like a contradiction. If Socrates was already close to death he should not care if the jury sentences him to death, either way he is going to die. He, in a way, does not want to accept the fact he is about to die, known as his reality. Right before he said that, to the jury, he tells the jury that he should be given free meals for life, “so if I must make a just assessment of what I deserve, I assess it as this: free meals in the Prytaneum.” (36 e) The Prytaneum was a place where it honored many great Olympians, of the city. Socrates is essentially saying to the jury, that he should be treated as someone who made Athens proud and that is the reason why they should not sentence him to death. Overall, this brings out the theme of fear of death. If Socrates is, in fact, afraid to die, we can say that perhaps he believes that there is no afterlife. However, towards the end of Apology, Socrates starts to accept his own reality, “And those of us who believe death to be an evil are certainly mistaken.” (40 b) This is when Socrates becomes more stable with his idea of an afterlife. And because of this we can conclude that Socrates does believe in an
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