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With Eyes Wide Open: Death Comes to All (Phaedo)

With Eyes Wide Open: Death Comes to All (Phaedo)

Last updated on: July 1, 2016 at 6:50 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

With Eyes Wide Open: Death Comes to All (Phaedo) 2016-07-01T18:50:19-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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David_-_The_Death_of_Socrates_opt A good man dies well, a great one makes his death matter. A leader looks after those around him right to the end. He will shift the focus from death to what comes next: eternity. The most human truth is that we are immortals in mortal bodies. Death, at least death as we experience it, is foreign to human nature as it should and will be.

Jesus conquered death and so in the end humanity will be healed and death (as we know it) will be no more. What of the rest of us now? Other and lesser examples help us see how we might die well, what we can anticipate, and where death ends.

Socrates, the first true philosopher, is my favorite example. Socrates died with his eyes wide open. If that fact dominates the story Plato tells us about the death of Socrates, then the discussion before his death can only be understood through the first line of Phaedo (the dialogue that eventually describes his death).

Were you with Socrates yourself, Phaedo, on the day when he drank the poison in prison, or did someone else tell you about it?

The speaker is a follower of Socrates and he is interested in the details of the death. He wants the facts from someone who was there and not second-hand. Phaedo was there. This is a natural desire if the event in question is big and Plato is presenting Socrates death as the start of an epic. Instead of killing Socrates and ending interest in him, Athens had made him immortal. This seems natural to us living in an era of mass communication, but recall that Socrates never wrote a book. He did not advertise his greatness. He only taught and his teaching could not live past his death.

Or could it?

What if his disciples were so moved by the manner of his life and death that they spent the rest of their lives reflecting on his work? What if several of his students had taken hold of his teaching and become better as a result? In fact, they were so transformed (Plato and Xenophon) that they would create literature that is still studied and Plato created the educational methods that guide the school where I teach.

Oddly, Plato who does not often write himself into the story (the way Dante did!) has his characters say in passing that Plato was not at the death bed, because he was ill.* First, Plato establishes in the first line how “big” it was to be there and then claims he was not there. How sick would a disciple have to be to miss the death of his master?

Plato must have been very sick . . . incapacitated. . . deadly sick. He was in worse shape that Socrates who was in health. Socrates would die, but be healthy. Plato would live, but he was not yet healthy. He had not yet learned what Socrates had to teach. He is inviting us to reflect, not on what he is offering, but on what Socrates said and did at the time of his death.

Many people on death row are not as sick as we are. They know they are going to die, some justly and others not so much, but this gives them time to prepare. For the good man or woman caught on death row or facing Daesh execution in the morning, there is a chance to think, prepare, and put the best one has forward. Samuel Johnson was right that imminent hanging concentrates the mind wonderfully.

We live carelessly as if we own some time that is ours to spend as we will. Socrates knew better the day he was to die, but then he had known better every day. On the day of his death, he would do what he had always done: educate the young people of Athens. Think hard himself. Examine himself and wonder about truth.

We are reminded of two facts about the death of Socrates: poison and prison. Socrates was executed by drinking poison. This method depends on the executed man agreeing to his punishment. He takes the poison, drinks, and dies. Athens has left the man with some control over the moment of his death, a shred of dignity. The cup contains death, but the man drinks the cup and so is freed from prison.

Socrates “prison” was not much. Don’t think Alcatraz, but a house with some ankle chains. Athens seemed eager for Socrates to leave and spare them from following through on their decision. Did they want him dead or did they hope his rich friends would send him off to another town? They delayed his execution long enough to let him run, gave easy access to Socrates, and did nothing to prevent his rich friends from setting plans in motion to flee. Socrates refused to leave his prison as a prisoner. He forced Athens to face what the democracy had become: a majority manipulated by demagogues. He would only leave prison as he entered: refusing to lie, play games with tyrants, or compromise his pursuit of truth.

It is the shame of our time that Christian American leaders are less brave with less integrity than the pagan Socrates. If the people choose badly, we glorify their choice as if the voice of the people is always the voice of God. If a man is powerful, we justify his misdeeds, overlook his faults, and try to curry his favor. We do all we can to escape and we act as living in this world is always better than dying.

Socrates showed us that it is not. Better dead, than well fed exiles from our values. Better dead, than corrupt the marriage bed. Christians of all people should die with their eyes open . . . looking past death. . . at as Life Himself welcomes us home.

Here is my prayer tonight:

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray Thee Lord my soul to keep

And if I die before I wake

I pray Thee Lord my soul to take.

Why?

If Jesus comes, then my eyes will be opened and I will see at last. Better dead in Jesus, than alive to all the glories of this life.

—————————————-

*The only other time Plato directly mentions Plato is in the Apology where he will help pay any reasonable fine for Socrates.

Plato is the greatest philosopher outside of Christendom. Reject him or accept him, nobody ignores him. This summer I will be looking at the first lines of all of his dialogues. Because he carefully crafted his dialogues, the first line often contain clues to the meaning of what will come next. I have written about how to read Plato in When Athens Met Jerusalem and The Great Books Reader. I tried my hand at Platonic myth making in Chasing Shadows.

Apology begins with the persuasiveness of crowds and the need for the elite to listen. Euthyphro tells us to avoid being a jerk for justice. We must be strong to finish what we start or we become Crito and face death with our eyes wide open as Phaedo shows Socrates did.

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