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Three charges against Socrates
Short note on Socrates
Short note on Socrates
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Socrates and Morality
Socrates is accused of impiety and for corrupting the lives of youths through his interactions with them and his teachings. Socrates defends his position on all charges believing he is doing just cause and in doing so is steadfastly abiding by his moral standards. Socrates believes that what matters is life and living it well. Socrates believes he should be rewarded rather than punished for his beliefs. He thinks he should be given free meals in the Prytaneum, where the Olympic athletes are celebrating or to pay a small sum of money which his friends raise to three times what Socrates proposes. In the end, Socrates accepts the judgment bestowed on him by the courts, the sentence of death. He accepts this verdict because he believes it is morally just to abide by the decision handed down by the state.
Crito, Socrates friend, has proposed several reasons that Socrates should not accept the verdict and should instead escape, Socrates ultimately believes that it would be morally unjust to
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Socrates asks Crito why he is concerned with what the majority might think about this decision. He continues to support the opinion that the majority may not always be correct in their assumptions. “My good Crito, why should we care so much for what the majority think? The most reasonable people, to whom one should pay more attention, will believe that things were done as they were done.” (Crito 44d). He further explains that the majority can also inflict the greatest evils if one is wronged among them. He uses the example of a man engaging in physical activity and whether he should pay attention to the opinion of any man or to one man only, namely a doctor or trainer? (Crito, 47a-b). When one follows the consensus of many instead of an expert, one can at times follow the wrong
Throughout the readings of The Apology of Socrates and Crito I have found that Socrates was not a normal philosopher. It is the philosopher's intention to question everything, but Socrates' approach was different then most other philosophers. From one side of the road, Socrates can be seen as an insensitive, arrogant man. He did indeed undermine the laws so they fit his ideals, leave his family, and disregard the people's values. On the other side he can be seen as an ingenious man who questioned what many thought was the unquestionable. As he can be criticized for disregarding the many's ideals he can also be applauded for rising above the daily ways of popular thought. He questioned the laws that he thought were wrong and, to his death, never backed down in what he believed in. People may see that as stupidity or as heroism, the beauty of it is that either way people saw it, Socrates wouldn't care.
When he is questioned why he doesn’t want to attempt to escape his death, he states that he feels it is unjust to escape. Socrates did what he believed his job was, which was to enlighten the youth to the unjust ways of society. While the way he was punished for it was unjust, Socrates stated that he has lived a happy life, and if he can’t rightly persuade the Laws of Athens to change its mind and let him go, then he can accept that.
Socrates argues in the Crito that he shouldn't escape his death sentence because it isn't just. Crito is distressed by Socrates reasoning and wishes to convince him to escape since Crito and friends can provide the ransom the warden demands. If not for himself, Socrates should escape for the sake of his friends, sons, and those who benefit from his teaching. Socrates and Crito's argument proceeds from this point.
Socrates was not guilty as charged; he had done nothing wrong, as seen in the Apology. Not even a priest could tell Socrates what he had done wrong religiously, Euthyphro wasn’t even able to give Socrates a precise definition of piety. It is then questioned by Crito why Socrates would remain to face a penalty for a crime he did not commit. In the Crito, it is explained why, although innocent, Socrates must accept the penalties his peers have set upon him. It is his peers that will interpret and enforce the laws, not the law which will enforce it. Even if the enforcers don’t deserve attention and respect because they have no real knowledge to the situation, Socrates had put himself under their judgment by going to the trial. Therefore, Socrates must respect the decisions made by the masses because the decisions are made to represent the laws, which demand each citizen’s respect.
He states that if he were to escape he would not be living honorably which he describes in Plato 's “Apology” as living a unexamined life and to him he would much rather die. Socrates states, “one must not even do wrong when one is wronged, which most people regard as the natural course” (Plato, 268). Socrates even though his sentence maybe biased and not morally right still believes that he must follow what he is condemned to. Through this he implies that even if we are cheated of fairness we must still do what is honorable and not fight it. He explains that the majority of people in his case would justify it to escape because they were sentenced for something that is completely moral. I disagree with Socrates in that if I was in his place, I would gain freedom and face my enemies for they wronged
One could see the final walk-away as a complete failure to a then seemingly meaningless story. Yet, I do not see it this way. Although Euthyphro walked away without a resolution, there was still much to be learned. The seemingly arrogant man that we were introduced to in the beginning, was not the same man in the final pages of the book. We may not have received a complete answer, but we did find something better; the knowledge that we cannot believe that our insights are always correct. And this is what Socrates strove to do: to evoke thought. When put on trial, we see this questioning is not an isolated occurrence as he states, “I believe the god has placed me in the city. I never cease to rouse each and every one of you, to persuade and reproach you all day long and everywhere I find myself in your company” (Apology, 30e). Socrates believed it was his duty to live a life of service in order to make people open their minds. In order for people to grow in wisdom, they needed to realize their ignorance. We need to be challenged in order to grow and it is through experiences, like Euthyphro’s, in which we become more
This is important to the passage due to the fact that Socrates never wants to leave although he did nothing wrong at all. Crito just wants him out being a dear friend. Socrates thinks that the law is always right and you should never disobey the law. In this century, everyone thinks that the law enforcement is wrong and need to stop being corrupt. There are some corrupt government and police officers out there but all in all, the system we have works out nicely. The law enforcement officers get in trouble for any little thing they do but they have every reason to do it. Sometimes they take it to the extreme but they are only doing their job and as Socrates says, “I value
There are times in every mans life where our actions and beliefs collide—these collisions are known as contradictions. There are endless instances in which we are so determined to make a point that we resort to using absurd overstatements, demeaning language, and false accusations in our arguments. This tendency to contradict ourselves often questions our character and morals. Similarly, in The Trial of Socrates (Plato’s Apology), Meletus’ fallacies in reason and his eventual mistake of contradicting himself will clear the accusations placed on Socrates. In this paper, I will argue that Socrates is not guilty of corrupting the youth with the idea of not believing in the Gods but of teaching the youth to think for themselves by looking to new divinities.
Socrates: A Gift To The Athenians As Socrates said in Apology by Plato, “...the envy and detraction of the world, which has been the death of many good men, and will probably be the death of many more…”(Philosophical Texts, 34) Throughout history, many leaders have been put to death for their knowledge. In Apology, Socrates- soon to be put to death- says he was placed in Athens by a god to render a service to the city and its citizens. Yet he will not venture out to come forward and advise the state and says this abstention is a condition on his usefulness to the city.
First he decides to address whether the jury was in fact unjust in their judgment. According to what they had concluded before the argument, Socrates and Crito both agree that one can willingly do no harm or commit unjust acts knowingly, and thus one can never do wrong in return, since then you would be knowingly committing harm, thus committing an unjust act. “One should never do wrong in return, nor do any man harm, no matter what he may have done to you.” (Plato, Crito 49c) Even if they determined the ruling to be unjust against his earlier claim, Socrates thinks that then the law would respond that he agreed to accept the verdict of the jury, and thus anything else would be contrary to his word, and thus unjust. Thus, since this holds to be true, they must conclude whether it harms other people if Socrates leaves, or will it do
Judgment is very hard to use as valid reasoning. Everyone has their own judgments about everything. How does one know if what Socrates was doing was corrupting or improving the youth?... ... middle of paper ... ...
A recurring theme in Crito is the definition of justice. Near the beginning of the dialogue, Crito states that Socrates needs to exit because “People who do not know you or me very well will think that I could have saved you if I were willing to spend money, but I did not care to do so” (44c). It is through that quote that the invalidity of public opinion is first addressed. Crito believes Socrates should escape, because the public opinion of Crito if he leaves without Socrates will be that Crito is cheap. Socrates approaches this
In the dialogue, Crito, Socrates justified his decision to accept his death penalty. His decision was praised as principled and just. However, such a view was one of the greatest myths in the history of philosophy. Contrary to the accepted ideas, I wish to show that Socrates’ argument was erroneous, the crucial error being his failure to distinguish between substantial and procedural justice. In fact, the whole of the Crito refers to some deeper problems of the philosophy of law and morality.
Socrates begins the passage by simply asking Crito why he thinks opinions matter. Throughout the passage, Crito and Socrates each give reasons to back up their argument. Crito starts off by explaining to Socrates that by letting himself stay in jail, he is letting people believe that he does not care about his friends or family. Crito also goes on to say, throughout the passage, that accepting his own death is wrong and is technically breaking the law to do so. Socrates replies that everyone has an opinion, but not everybody’s opinion is just. It is not about the opinion but whether or not the opinion is a justified opinion (Socrates, The Crito). Later in the discussion, Socrates goes on to explain to Crito that most of the time when we follow the majority we are not following what we find true to ourselves, which then leads us to a less fulfilling life. Toward the end of the dialogue, Crito accepts what his friend, Socrates, is
...ns. Why would he do this if he did not see the laws of Athens as just? In order to fulfill the agreement he has made with Athenian law, Socrates must accept the punishment he is given, though he feels that his being punished is Athens wronging him. It would be wrong, by his view, to escape from prison, though he would not be pursued, because he would be breaking his agreement to obey Athenian law. Since he and Crito previously agreed that one must never do wrong, he simply must stay in jail until his death. This is merely one example of the way in which Socrates uses a method of logical dialogue in order to make his point. He appears to be unmatched in his skills of deduction and consistently demonstrates his love of knowledge and truth. Socrates exemplifies all that is philosophy, both as a student and a teacher, because of his constant, active pursuit of wisdom.