Analysis Of Socrates' View On Death In The Apology

Analysis of Socrates' View on Death in the Apology

Fragment and analyze a text. Please watched the accompanying PowerPoint where I explain what I have in mind and review the example I have provided that I have done this myself. I want you to take the text I give you below and do the following: Fragment the text into separate sentences breaking up conjunctions and deleting “window dressing” text. Identify the Thesis Statement. The rest of the sentences are either premises, restatement of the thesis, or irrelevant. Draw Arrows as a Graphic as to which sentences are offered in support of which sentences. (e.g. A ---> B indicates that you think sentence A was offered as support for sentence B). Schematize Argument (Optional) Flow Chart It (Optional) Links to an explanation of this assignment as well as a PowerPoint presentation on this assignment can be found on the lesson plan for this course ((10/7/19). (Links to an external site.) Here is the text I want you to analyze for this assignment: Socrates makes the point in the Apology that it is silly and a sort of false wisdom to fear death. If one thinks about the matter with due care, one will see that we really lack any rational grounds to fear death. This is because it is only legitimate to fear something when one knows that it is in fact bad. But to know that death is bad, it is not enough to believe it. One would have to have a justified belief that death is a bad thing. Since no one who has died can tell whether death is a bad thing, we lack the justification to claim we “know” that it is a bad thing. For all we know, it might be the greatest of all blessings. Since we don’t know whether death is bad or not, we shouldn’t fear it. And to fear death despite lacking true knowledge is to pretend to have knowledge one does not in fact have.

Paper For Above instruction

Thesis Statement

Socrates argues in the Apology that fearing death is illogical because we lack sufficient knowledge to do so.

Support Premises

1. It is silly and a false wisdom to fear death.
2. One lacks rational grounds to fear death if they do not have justified belief that death is bad.
3. Knowing that death is bad requires justified belief, not mere belief.
4. No one who has died can tell whether death is bad, so we lack the justification to claim we know it is bad.
5. Death might be the greatest blessing, which we do not know.

Restatement of Thesis

Since we do not have true knowledge about death, fearing it is unjustified and akin to pretending to know something we do not.

Graph of Support Support

• Socrates' claim that it is silly and false wisdom to fear death.
• Because justified belief is required to claim knowledge that death is bad.
• Since no one who has died can confirm if death is bad, we lack justification.
• Given our ignorance about whether death is bad or good.
• Therefore, fearing death is unjustified and it's mistaken to do so without true knowledge.

References

• Annas, J. (1992). Socratic wisdom and moral psychology. In _The Cambridge Companion to Socrates_. Cambridge University Press.
• Brickhouse, T. C., & Smith, N. (2000). _Socrates on action_. Cambridge University Press.
• Gorgias. (n.d.). In The Internet Classics Archive. Retrieved from http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/gorgias.html
• Kraut, R. (2018). _Socrates and the examined life_. Princeton University Press.
• Nehamas, A. (1985). _Socrates engaged: The philosophy behind his life_. University of Chicago Press.
• Vlastos, G. (1991). _Socrates: Ironist and moral philosopher_. Cornell University Press.
• Note: This is a sample structure based on the assignment instructions.
• Socrates. (n.d.). In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/
• Taylor, C. C. W. (1983). _Socrates_. Oxford University Press.
• Veenstra, J. (2011). The Socratic paradox and its multiple interpretations. _Philosophy Compass_, 6(8), 588–601.