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Fear Of Death In On The Trial And Death Of Socrates

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We are born and then we die, since no human is immortal, we must all endure this cycle of life. Since each human must endure the dying process, it is common that as humans we have and share mutual feelings and thoughts toward the experience of dying, such as a fear of death. In a poll of the top one-hundred phobias in America, Thanatophobia or the fear of death ranked number twelve, signifying that the experience of death is considered by many to be a very frightening thing ("Top 100 Phobia List." ). Numerous people may fear death; however, various philosophers have challenged this notion. Throughout the years, numerous philosophers have provided various valid points in order to alleviate our fears of death. After considering the reasons …show more content…

One of the main and most major reasons that people fear death is because of the unknowingness and uncertainty that accompanies death and the dying process. However, in On the Trial and Death of Socrates, Socrates argues that unknowingness and uncertainty of death is not a valid reason for someone to fear death. Socrates disproves the latter by providing two reasons (Ciraulo, p. 3-50), Socrates first reason is that since death is unknown, no one truly knows whether death is good or evil (Ciraulo, p. 3-50). Since, no one truly knows if death is good or evil, there is an equal opportunity that death may be good or evil. Since there is an equal opportunity, it is possible that death may be the greatest good, therefore why should one fear death if death is the greatest good? Fearing the greatest good is not only foolish, but rather just utter nonsense because how can one fear something that is …show more content…

The thoughts and ideology of Saint Augustine help to alleviate the unknowingness of death, which in turn alleviates one’s fear of death. In The Death of a Friend and the life of the Soul, Augustine speaks about death and the afterlife from a religious standpoint in order to alleviate the unknowingness of death. Augustine tells of how it is through the power of God that one is created through birth, therefore since we are created from God we will return to God through death (Ciraulo, p. 111-123). Since God is the greatest good, by returning to God it signifies that death is also the greatest good. This is an important concept because it relates back to Socrates’ ideology in which he challenged that death cannot be feared because there is a chance that death is the greatest good. Through religion Augustine validates that death is the greatest good, therefore validating the point that death cannot feared, since one cannot fear something that is

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