Plato's Apology: When A Five Year Old Asks Why

When A Five Year Old Asks Why Have you ever met a kid who asked why to literally every answer given to them? In Plato’s Apology, Socrates attempted to defend the charges against him through cross examination and as he proposed his defense he concluded that an unexamined life is not worth living. While Socrates faced a death sentence, he continued to do so without fear of death, unlike Ivan Ilych in The Death of Ivan Ilych written by Leo Tolstoy. Although Ivan lived a life in which he held a high reputation and made plenty money, I believe that Socrates would deem his life as an unexamined life because of his lack of self awareness and his rejection to death, causing Ivan to suffer in his final days of life. Socrates believed that if he was …show more content…
Something many of us are uncomfortable with. Socrates was obviously very blunt and very open with everyone and anyone of any status. Showing his humbleness, and his drive to understand the world in his own view. Socrates was aware of his being a sort of pain in the ass and urged the men of Athens that it was what they needed. If we went through life never questioning, never doubting, never wondering we must very well be robots. This is not the case, for robots do not have bleeding wounds as they also do not have an inner self awareness, gut feeling, conscience or whatever you might call …show more content…
Not only was he afraid of death he cursed it and did not accept his fate until it had already been too late. In the Apology, Socrates explains that it is not wise to fear death because to fear death would suggest that one knows what death is. And as no one, who has ever experienced death, has been able to say what it is like, no one that is living should say they fear death. Fearing the unknown, fearing a deep slumber is something that puzzles Socrates and he shows courage unlike most humans, by setting aside a fear of losing life and looking at the positive side of death. I think it is the certainty of death that strikes fear into the soul, knowing that life is so precious and can be taken easily, knowing that it will happen to every man not matter how much money he makes. Yet many humans take life for granted. Focusing on parts of life that do not matter, which according to Socrates are the materialistic parts, parts of life that cannot be carried into death. It is easy to become sucked into the idea that all life ends with death, but I think Socrates tried hard to persuade people to not fear death and instead fill one's life with so much that you become distracted to the point that once death knocks on your door you can accept it with open arms, embracing the unknown. Unless of course you are Ivan Ilych. He