Insight into the Dialogues of Socrates - Essay Example

The Apology that Plato gives may be witnessed as a continuation of Phaedo because here, he defends himself concerning the charges of him corrupting the young people with his philosophy and not believing in the gods of the Greek cities.

In Crito, Socrates has been viewed as a very calm individual despite waiting in a prison cell for his execution. Socrates states that it is only fitting that he be calm in the face of death, however; Crito arrives to help him escape and tells him that it would be unjust if Socrates simply gave his life up to his enemies’ hands. He talks about moral appeals to which Socrates replies by saying that he is a man who is guided by reason and rationality and is not scared about facing death. When it comes to the question of justice, he replies by saying that it would be unjust to carry on with the plan of the escapade, and if it is not good to do injustice to people then it is not good to do injustice to injustice as well, as an eye for an eye.

The Apology is a piece of art that is a charge against Socrates for both not believing in the Gods and questioning their abilities instead, as well as corrupting the youth with his morals and ethics. He defends himself in the presence of Delphi, the Oracle, and his dialogue includes the cross-examination that he has with Meletus. The dialogue has been divided into three parts with the first as the introduction of the charges, the second as the verdict, and the final part depicting the sentencing that Socrates faces. However, the Apology is simply an account of philosophy and is not true.

Phaedo on the other hand is the last dialogue that Socrates states Socrates’ argument regarding the soul’s lasting appearance is based only on the probability of the soul’s continued existence after the death of the body, as per the comment and objection made by Cebes. He says that since Cebes admits that the body lasts for a certain amount of time after the death of the person, the soul of the person dissolving immediately is a very absurd notion. The soul thus has a mind of its own as it can trust the Forms that are invisible to the naked eye. It has an intelligible presence and it joins the forces of divinity after the death of the body.

Both Cebes and Socrates can put forth their arguments regarding the existence of a soul and a body however, Socrates states that the soul is long-lasting and not immortal, as opposed to Cebes’ argument regarding the same matter. With the help of several arguments, mainly the Affinity Argument, Socrates has tried to persuade people into understanding how the soul has a specific lifetime and lives on even after the death of the body whereas Cebes rejects the idea saying that if the body lives on after death then so does the soul, and if not, then vice versa.