The Last Days of Socrates

Socrates’s argument for the immortality of the soul begins in Euthyphro when he differentiates between piety as people experience and enact it and piety as a thing in and of itself, existing beyond the reach of human conception. This assertion acts as a first step that sets the conditions for Socrates’s further examination in Phaedo. His defense in the Apology frames oracles as divine truth tellers whose meaning humans can only guess. This is not a new conception for ancient Greeks, but Socrates deploys it in a new way. By arguing that his philosophical methods are a divine imperative, an earnest attempt to interpret the oracle naming him the wisest man, Socrates affirms the existence of a realm of truth beyond human access.

Claiming that his gift lies in his wisdom-to-know-that-he-does-not-know, Socrates, almost paradoxically, establishes himself as the person best suited to examine the unknowable. Crito further establishes his authority, as Socrates redirects Crito’s concern away from what random people will think to the question of what is just. As with Socrates’s followers in the Apology, Crito’s struggle demonstrates how difficult it is to act in accordance with the ideal, in this case justice.