As I'm reading The Apology of Socrates, the following quote really struck me:
"You see, fearing death, gentlemen, is nothing other than thinking one is wise when one isn't since it's thinking one knows what one doesn't know. I mean, no one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all goods for people, but they fear it as if they knew for certain that it's the worst thing of all." (Page 659)
I thought this was definitely a new (well, new to me) way to think about death. It's really intriguing to me, although I'm still not quite sure what to think of it.
Did you all find any of Socrates statements that really struck you?
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3 comments:
It reminds me of a line of a song from this band I listen to. The line goes, "We live our lives afraid to die, but these dreams are selfish." And when I heard that I kind of agreed. Everyone must die, so to be afraid is irrational. Plato goes on to write how Socrates says, death may be equivalent to one night of sleep where you don't remember anything or it there could be what many of his time thought, a heaven like place.
This quote really struck me as well Socrates accecpts death as something that is better than life itself because, as Parker said, it is one continuous sleep. I was suprised that socrates was not afraid of death at all because i definitly would be. I do think that he knew he would be sentenced to death even before he gave his "apology," so maybe he his iminent death.
I like that Socrates is confident enough in what he belives that he does not fear death. It's odd, i think that socrates seems to belive that death is something better than life. The fact that he hold this belief shows he is willing to die for his belief and there for unshakeably confident in his belief. i love the quote that the "wise man knows he knows nothing" (paraphrase): I feel this eximplifies the platonic ideal of the unatainable perfection of knowledge.
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