Death in the Apology and the Phaedo

Although both texts are retellings of the words and thoughts of Socrates by Plato, the Apology and the Phaedo present contrasting perspectives regarding death. In the Apology, Socrates explains that men must acknowledge that they simply cannot know what death is until they die and experience death firsthand. In the Phaedo, however, Socrates presents his view that the soul is undoubtedly immortal, and gives a convincing argument to prove that this is the case. Acknowledging that both viewpoints are believable to some extent, the more rational presentation of death is that of the Phaedo: even though people die, the human soul remains immortal.

In the Apology, Socrates speaks to the Athenian jury on several topics including the impossibility of predicting what-if anything-lies beyond life here on earth. Socrates approaches the subject when he is faced with the reality of his own impeding death following his death sentencing. He explains that he will not beg for mercy or try to bargain to save his life, because it is insensible to fear death. His viewpoint of the "unknowability" of death is made clear in the following quotation:

"To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows that one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men dear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils. And surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know." (Apology p 33; 29b)

Although Socrates explains that it is impossible for a living man to know what death will bring, he does not hesitate to present us with two possibilities:

"... there is good hope that death is a blessing, for it is one of two things: either the dead are nothing and have no perception of anything, or it is, as we are told, a change and relocating of the soul from here to another place..." (Apology p 43; 40 c-d)

Socrates's introduction of possible outcomes of death lays the framework for the alternate (and more logical) viewpoint that there is a spiritual existence which transcends life on earth which he elucidates in the Phaedo. Socrates explains that, when men die, it is only their bodies which cease to exist. (Phaedo p 103; 66b) Furthermore, men who have lived a philosophical life should welcome death, since the ultimate point of philosophy is to free the soul from the fetters of bodily confinement to transcend sensory illusion. Socrates presents death as a positive occurrence which is a transition rather than an end. (Phaedo p 104; 67d-e)

In the viewpoint of death expressed in the Phaedo, the soul is immortal, with earthly life comprising only one of the states in a spiritual cycle. Socrates explains that, in order to be present on earth, souls must have existed before being born into bodies:

"...the living come from the dead...