Precis

                                                                                                                        Linda Olmos

                                                                                                                  Jerilyn Sambrooke

                                           The Apology by Plato

            Creating a plot twist, Socrates responds to what is considered his punishment by the jury. The punishment is his death sentence. Rather than perceiving death as something dire, Socrates unfolds the Socratic Paradox, which ironically is not a punishment but the opposite of a grim verdict. Rather, the death sentence offers promising future: “Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is good, for one of two things: -either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another.”

            As we can observe from the passage, Socrates is neither afraid of nor unhappy about death because he is arguing that if death is a deep sleep, then it is a painless and peaceful rest. Socrates finds this “utter unconsciousness,” symbolizing death, to be inviting. From Socrates’s perspective, life is full of pain and because death is “unconsciousness,” it is free of pain, a concept different from the dreadful fear that many people today have of death. If death is the journey to his afterlife, Socrates reasons, what is there to fear? This afterlife, Socrates contends is “nothingness.” We have to ask ourselves, what is there to feel or fear in “nothingness?”  Furthermore, in the “migration of the soul from this world to another,” Socrates himself has nothing to dread because his “soul” will certainly not be migrating to another world such as hell.   

            In Socrates’ Paradox, knowledge consequently is valued as good because ignorance is considered evil. This means God is good. As stated from the beginning of the plot, Socrates does not lack ignorance.   Socrates is knowledgeable because he admits that he knows nothing. Because Socrates is knowledgeable, he is good, not evil.    Socrates leads us to conclude that he “migration of the soul from this world to another” for someone good can only be positive.  

            In reality, Socrates is content with this option because in afterlife, he can converse with heroes of the past, such as Palamedes and Ajax; Socrates further argues that afterlife is not be feared because there, he can look for true and false knowledge and differentiate between the wise and unwise just as he does on earth. This is his passion.

            Socrates is put on trial for expressing his ideas freely and thereby receives a death sentence due to his passion for truth and knowledge. What makes the passage being analyzed particularly ironic is that Socrates successfully asserts that his sentence, rather than representing a bleak castigation, is a reward.  This is the opposite of what Socrates’s jurors intended.  In short, although Socrates is sentenced to death, and all seems hopeless, he is the real winner.  He uses his intelligence and integrity to stand up to the jury of his time.