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Death is a lingering, looming thematic presence throughout all four "Dialogues." It is the trigger for the debate about justice that takes place in "Euthyphro," it is the unspoken fate sensed by Socrates throughout the "Apology", it is the fear-triggering motivation for Crito's urging Socrates to escape in "Crito" and it is the focus of the in-depth discussion (not to mention the emotional climax) of "Phaedo." It's possible to see, in fact, the debate in "Euthyphro" as defining and symbolizing the basic questions about death that permeate all four dialogues - is death justice? Do good, wise souls (such as Socrates is portrayed to be) deserve to die? What justice, if any, is meted out after death? The problem, of course, is that no question about death (other than whether it's inevitable) can ever be answered definitively one way or the other - all the questions raised, all the answers offered or even hinted at, here or anywhere else, are all pure hypothesis. Death is perhaps the greatest mystery of life, and unless one is truly wise in Socratic terms (that is, knowing and gracefully accepting what one doesn't know), there is fear associated with that mystery (as there arguably is, at least to some degree, in any mystery). Ultimately, this means that any theorizing and/or discussion and/or questioning on the subject, even that of Socrates, is purely, and in a purely human way, an attempt to keep that fear at bay.

Source(s)

The Trial and Death of Socrates, BookRags