An Analysis Of Socrates’ View Of Life And Death

This dissertation attempts to explore the philosophical meaning of life and deaththrough understanding Socrates in Plato’s dialogues. Since it is talking about the viewof life and death, what must be taken into account is the images of Socrates during hislifetime as well as his understanding of death. Those who understand Plato’sdialogues will know exhaustive discussion about death was conducted in his Apologyand Phaedra. Especially Phaedra, almost the entire dialogue was conducted to provethe immortality of Soul. On the part of the images of Socrates during his lifetime, thisarticle will focus on the Symposium, in which the Socrates in daily life was depicted,which could help us understand the true philosopher in him.Life and death is of the unity of opposites. We cannot just take one of them inconsideration. Instead, it’s a must to integrate them together to make a comprehension.Similarly, in order to comprehend Plato’s dialogues, scholars must have a basicunderstand in Plato’s thirty-five dialogues and then sort them out. Anyone who wantsto study one of the dialogues, he has to take other relevant dialogues intoconsideration to make a further research. For the theme, Plato’s view on life and death,of this dissertation, Phaedra is the key study object. Meanwhile, Apology andSymposium that are closely related to Phaedra must be discussed. The reason why thisdissertation covers Apology is that it explains the reason of Plato’s choice of death,and Symposium explains the reason of Plato’s living. Certainly, more comprehensiveinformation must be obtained deeply from the dialogues.Why did Socrates choose to end his life? After all, it is a hard decision. But toexplore the meaning of that, it must be done from a philosophical point of view tounderstand the death of Socrates. Plato’s dialogues were not just about life and death,and also about such bigger issues as a political systems and civilization. But in thisdissertation, the author will put aside these big problems, but only focus on life anddeath.