Classic Philosophy - Plato Plato\'s

Classic Philosophy - Plato

Plato's Apology:

Socrates' accusers most probably asked for the death penalty because they actually sought to ensure his banishment instead. In Athens, it was customary for the accused and prosecutors to impose a harsher penalty than actually desired and for the accused to argue for leniency after conviction. In that scheme, banishment was an appropriate alternative to a death sentence.

Socrates purposely asks for alternatives that are absurd, such as lifelong support by the state to ensure that he continues performing his benefit to society and later, a fine of only three-hundred drachmas. By proposing excessively lenient alternatives, Socrates ensures that he will receive the death sentence because, ordinarily, the accused received the lesser alternative punishment.

Socrates does not fear death because he realizes it either results in eternal non-existence (which is nothing to fear) or in the reunion with already dead heroes such as Homer and Odysseus (which is nothing to fear either). In fact, Socrates regards death as a blessing because of its freedom from worry and anxiety. According to Socrates, fear of death is ignorant and he refuses to resort to emotional appeals to spare his life. He is committed to the adjudication of his guilt or innocence exclusively through rational arguments grounded in truth and the logical validity of the arguments themselves.

Plato's Republic:

Epistemologically, Socrates believed that all of us are born with comprehensive knowledge of everything within us and that what we refer to as "knowledge" is merely the Recollection of what we already knew when our souls lived in reality. Socrates differentiates philosophers from non-philosophers by virtue the commitment of the former to perceiving the facts of reality and limiting their mental processes to logical and rational argument instead of subjective (or otherwise limited) perceptions such as those illustrated by the Cave allegory. According to Socrates, art is merely a copy (or a copy of a copy) of reality with which philosophers ought not to concern themselves.