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Better Off Dead: Suicide In Plato's Philosophy, Anna Christensen

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Better Off Dead: Suicide in Plato's Philosophy, I argue that Plato thinks Socrates committed suicide, and show how this thesis coheres a rich set of Platonic views about the permissibility of suicide, about living a good life, and about responsible and intentional action. An ancient philosophical tradition portrays Socrates' death as a virtuous suicide, but contemporary scholars tend to focus on the fact that Socrates' death occurred as a result of execution. They think that Plato does not portray Socrates as committing suicide, largely because some textual evidence suggests that Plato considers suicide to be ethically wrong (Phd. 61c; …