Socrates and Death Essay

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Being a soldier I am asked many times, “Aren’t you afraid you’ll die over there?” “Doesn’t your family worry?” and to these people I ask what is the obsession with death? I see many times where people are trying to look younger and live longer only to die old and alone. Given the choice between a young and glorious death or an old and lonely one, I would have to choose the first. Depending on your beliefs death could be the end or the beginning, for Socrates it was a little of both. He believed that though his physical life was over, his spiritual one had just begun. Though Socrates claims to be ignorant of life after death, he does know that it is pernicious to corrupt ones soul by committing an injustice, and this, he pronounces, is the error of the Athenians. Gods alone hold the knowledge of justice, knowledge of what constitutes social and personal excellence. He saw death not as a dark and solemn place, but as a new opportunity, to discover new things that the living will never be privy to. He also did not see death as the easy way out, nor did he feel like he should fight to stay alive when he felt that so much more still lay ahead of him. He was humble, and welcomed death. While content and waiting for his execution he thought about what a good sleep he was about to endure. He also thought about what men he would see and would hope to have conversations with intellectual likeness. I feel like I have to agree with Socrates on this, because seeing death my whole

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