Perennial Wisdom
Perennial Wisdom is a podcast for seekers and curious minds. Each episode explores philosophical and spiritual traditions for universal truths and enduring ideas to help you (and me) never stop learning how to live.
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Socrates on the Fear of Death
In this episode of Perennial Wisdom, we turn to Plato’s Apology and the final words of Socrates to explore how philosophy can liberate us from the fear of death. Socrates stood trial, was sentenced to die, and yet he remained calm, unshaken, and grounded in virtue. For Socrates, living an unexamined life poses a greater danger than death.
This episode encourages us to reconsider our connection to fear, death, and virtue. Socrates becomes more than just a figure from history—he becomes a mirror, asking the perennial question, “What kind of life are you living?”
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Episode Transcript
The following is a transcript from “Socrates on the Fear of Death” from the Perennial Wisdom podcast (Ep. 246).
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Most of us will never face a trial like Socrates. We likely won’t be called before a jury of 500 of our peers, nor accused of “corrupting the youth” or impiety. And we probably won’t have to choose between exile or execution.
But we all face a much quieter and more subtle trial—every day.
We face the fear of loss, the fear of death, and the fear of change. Behind all of this, there is a deep-seated fear that we are not living our lives to the fullest.
In Plato’s Apology, Socrates stands before the Athenian court, accused and condemned. He is offered a chance to plead, to soften, to survive.
But instead, Socrates says this:
Someone will say: ‘And are you not ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an untimely end?’
To him I may fairly answer: There you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong—acting the part of a good man or of a bad.
Socrates makes a sharp, clear, and unwavering point: our concern should not be death, but rather injustice. Life is not about survival but about virtue.
To strengthen his point, Socrates depicts a soldier to his accusers, noting that he once served himself. In battle, the key issue isn't about dying but about remaining steadfast. He says,
For wherever a man’s place is, whether the place which he has chosen or that in which he has been placed by a commander, there he ought to remain in the hour of danger; he should not think of death or of anything but of disgrace.
Most of us, likely myself included, carry a silent calculation constantly running in the background:
Will this make me more secure?
Will this bring approval?
Will this help me succeed?
Socrates proposes a completely different measure, questions like: Is this right? Is this just? Is this who I want to be?
Even when facing death, Socrates stays calm—not proud or defiant, but grounded in something more profound. He suggests:
Let us reflect in this way, that there is much reason to hope for a good after death; for one of two things must be true—either death is a state of nothingness, and utter unconsciousness, or... it is a migration of the soul from this world to another.
If death is just sleep, then why fear it? If it means going to be with great souls, why run from it? But the key point is this: death is not our enemy. “The real difficulty is not to avoid death,” stressed Socrates, “but to avoid unrighteousness.”
At the end of The Apology, Socrates makes one final request to his accusers. Notice his focus on virtue rather than revenge.
When my sons are grown, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them…
if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing—then reprove them, as I have reproved you…The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.
Even in his final moments, Socrates imparts wisdom. He invites his accusers and us to consider what they truly value.
In today’s world, conversations about virtue are uncommon. We tend to focus more on topics like achievement, safety, happiness, and productivity.
But virtue? It's about doing what's right—even when no one is watching. It means living without compromise, even if it costs you.
These are timeless lessons: they were necessary two thousand years ago for Socrates, they are necessary today, and they will continue to be in the future.
As we begin to close, I invite you to imagine Socrates not as perfect, but as free.
Free from the fear of death.
Free from the need for approval.
Free from the illusion that life is about self-preservation.
And finally, free from the perils of anger.
He says in the Apology,
I am not angry with my accusers… I leave to them and to God to determine what is best for them and for me.
Reflection Questions
Which part of your life is largely ruled by fear?
Do you fear death more than the possibility of living unrighteously?
What values would you stand up for, even if doing so comes with a sacrifice?
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Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well.
J.W.
P.S. If you enjoyed it, consider leaving a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Thank you for this reflection on Socrates. I read it not only as a very uninformed but interested reader of philosophy and psychologist, but also as someone who lives every day since a child with disability and now in the autumn of my life also prostate cancer. I stand therefore on both sides—as clinician and as patient.
For me, the struggle is not only with fear of illness, pain, loss and death, which is not unique or really avoidable, but with the systems and people around me who so often act out of fear rather than virtue.
They follow procedure, protect themselves, and yet believe they are acting rightly. That is perhaps the hardest trial: not death itself, but facing death in the midst of institutions and sadly people who fail to live up to Socrates’ standard of virtue. Indeed often fail to recognise that it is at the heart of everything that gives meaning to life and that it is sometimes enough to just recognise that and aim for it, even if we fail. Intention is I feel a virtue in itself.
Outstanding essay! And to think that Socrates died 399 BC and we are still asking the same two questions Socrates raised. And we don’t have definitive answers. That’s not to say some people don’t have a faith system that gives them an answer. But it is ultimately just an opinion. Because it can’t be proved. BecauseFaith is believing in something that can’t be proved. Thank you so much for this translating this pod cast.