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Article: Philosophy, Western
- Article from:
- Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying
- Author:
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Philosophy, Western
"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our own ways
—
I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows" (Edman 1930, p. 88). These dramatic lines, spoken by Socrates at the end of Plato's
Apology,
are among the most memorable in the history of Western philosophy. Their implication that death is a blessed relief from the suffering that is life has proved a watershed in Western philosophical attitudes toward life and death, with some subsequent thinkers echoing their otherworldly metaphysics and others, like Nietzsche, countering with a passionate affirmation of life against death. Because a philosophical verdict on death entails a judgment on life ...
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