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Socratic Theory - Death as a G

 

            "Death is a Good" - Writing Assignment #1.
             Socrates" claim that death is a good is one based upon the Socratic Method for disproving a conclusion. Socrates" method states that if a hypothesis is true, then the expected implications will follow. Therefore if the expected implications do not follow, the hypothesis is proved false. Socrates illustrated this method when he stated: "If I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand" (44). Socrates supports his claim that death is a good by stating the lack of intervention of the Oracle, and the belief that nothing bad happens to a good man.
             "I am only too conscious that I have no claim to wisdom, great or small; so what can he mean by asserting that I am the wisest man in the world? He cannot be telling a lie; that would not be right for him" (44). Socrates asserts here that the Oracle at Delphi could not be lying when she told him that he was the wisest man on the earth. Socrates utilizes divine intervention to prove that death must be good. He says, right before making the claim that death is a good, at no point during the trial was he instructed by his "divinely inspired conscious" to stop speaking or change the impact of his words. This fact insinuates that some good must be coming out of his actions in the court. Socrates also believes that nothing bad will happen to a good man, and is convinced that he himself is a good man. .
             After death, Socrates states that there is one of two options. Either life ends, or as widely held, there is an afterlife. Using a comparison to a deep sleep, Socrates states that if death were to become a dreamless sleep, it would be a marvelous gain and seem as though it were only one night. If, on the other hand, there is an afterlife, it would be rich and full of wonderful people who walk upright and proud. If there is an afterlife, Socrates would finally be able to overcome the limitation of the Socratic Method.


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