Philosophy

Socratic & the afterlife
PHI/105
July 5, 2015
Kendra Jackson

Death did not leave Socrates in any sorrow but gave him some hope and happiness that he would be moving on in life. In Socrates final hours, he spoke of death and the afterlife while he waited to be executed. Socrates had two charges and had been convicted; corrupting the youth and impiety, he went to prison and as sentenced to death. In his final words, Socrates does not seem to have any fear in death. Socrates lack of fear in death appears to be greatly influenced by his beliefs that after your physical body is “relived” their soul lives on for eternity. Socrates describes a place where Gods and men alike can have conversations and it is a bit like heaven described in Christianity. A lot of people have the same type of idea about where people go after death; their soul departs and takes on a whole new journey. In Plato’s Phaedra, Socrates goes on to explain that the soul travels to another world or afterlife. The soul leaves the body and travels to be judged and if the soul has acted impurely while in the body it would be ignored and left to wander alone in the afterlife until some time has passed to cover for their wrongdoing. He believed that the dead would travel through Acheron, which is a river in the underworld where those who lives on Earth were meaningless or impure would be cleansed and released and the other would be sent to Tartarus (hell) for eternity. Socrates said that some of those who committed heinous acts could be released from hell after spending no less than one year and only if they could obtain mercy from those they have harmed in their life. Socrates had a vivid imagination as to his views on death and the afterlife.
My personal beliefs are similar to what Socrates describes Christianity and other religions similar to it: other religions often depict a river of fire where the sinners of life have to come and pay for their wrongdoings they have committed during their live....