Quotation
Last reviewed:
“To fear death is to think oneself wise when one is not: to think one knows what one does not know.”
Socrates · Socratic · Ancient · 399 BCE
Part of:Ancient questions, modern life →
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that fearing death pretends to a knowledge nobody has, since no one knows whether death is a harm. A competing reading treats the point as rhetorical courage for a jury, rather than a standing rule about every fear of dying. The sentence sits in the Apology where Socrates answers the shame of having risked his life by philosophising. It belongs with his claim to a human wisdom that consists in not faking knowledge.
Did Socrates really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Plato's report of Socrates at the trial, not a court transcript. The English is close to G. M. A. Grube's translation of Apology 29a.
Where it comes from
Plato, Apology 29a
Approximate date: 399 BCE.
How to use it
A test result not yet back, or a hospital letter still sealed, breeds a story about the ending. The fear may be about pain, dependents, or unfinished work, which are not the same as knowing what being dead is. Socrates's test is whether the dread is pretending to that extra knowledge, and practical planning can continue without the pretence.
A mindset reading
The habit is to separate fear of a known hardship from fear that borrows the shape of knowledge. Ask which part of the dread you could actually check, and which part is a blank you have filled in. Calling the blank wisdom is the move he refuses.
Understand the philosophy
Socrates is answering the idea that a sensible person puts survival first. To think oneself wise, in this speech, is to claim knowledge one has not got, which is the same fault he finds in the politicians and poets. Death is his example because the trial has made it the price of continuing. The argument does not say that dying is pleasant, and it says the fear often outruns what is known.
- knowledge
- death
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that fearing death pretends to a knowledge nobody has, since no one knows whether death is a harm. A competing reading treats the point as rhetorical courage for a jury, rather than a standing rule about every fear of dying. The sentence sits in the Apology where Socrates answers the shame of having risked his life by philosophising. It belongs with his claim to a human wisdom that consists in not faking knowledge.
Did Socrates really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Plato's report of Socrates at the trial, not a court transcript. The English is close to G. M. A. Grube's translation of Apology 29a.
Which work is it in?
Plato, Apology 29a Approximate date: 399 BCE.