The Last Days of Socrates
Plato. The Last Days of Socrates. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1993
Imagine the time just after the death of Socrates. The people of Athens were filled with questions about the final judgment of this well-known, long-time citizen of Athens. Socrates was accused at the end of his life of impiety and corruption of youth. Rumors, prejudices, and questions flew about the town. Plato experienced this situation when Socrates, his teacher and friend, accepted the ruling of death from an Athenian court. In The Last Days of Socrates, Plato uses Socrates’ own voice to explain the reasons that Socrates, though innocent in Plato’s view, was convicted and why Socrates did not escape his punishment as offered by the court. The writings, “Euthyphro,” “The Apology,” “Crito,” and “Pheado” not only helped the general population of Athens and the friends and followers of Socrates understand his death, but also showed Socrates in the best possible light. They are connected by their common theme of a memoriam to Socrates and the discussion of virtues. By studying these texts, researchers can see into the culture of Athens, but most important are the discussions about relationships in the book. The relationships between the religion and state and individual and society have impacted the past and are still concerns that are with us today.
While Plato is writing to prove Socrates a good or respectable person, he allows the modern reader a glimpse into Athenian culture. We see that religion is held in very high regard and failing to serve a religion is punishable by death, no matter what one’s social or political stature. In “Euthyphro,” the reader learns that sometimes an Interpreter is consulted when dealing with certain criminal behavior. Also, we realize that the Athenians regard a son accusing a father of a crime, no matter what the charge, as very odd and of great annoyance to the family. I believe this is still true today. Family loyalty is considered, in some cases, more important than the laws of the country. One example is the crime families that operate in the country. These families are known to be patriotic, but their patriotism stops when family and money are involved. In “The Apology,” the reader sees some of the Athenian court system in action. Researchers can guess that prosecution and defense are allowed only certain amounts of...
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...ribed happened and were recorded. The element of a man, falsely accused, dying for his beliefs is a crossover into an idea understood by all cultures. Even the way the works are presented, in the form of dialogue, make them stand out to history. Perhaps the first time in history are such deep thoughts written about and discussed in such a way. This also speaks of the times of the philosophers. If the inhabitants of Athens had time to think about such deep thoughts as “What is holiness?” they must have lead lives of ease compared with those of earlier people. These certain thoughts might be precedents in history, just because the Athenians cherished thought, rhetoric, and some had the time and willingness to practice these pursuits. Civilizations that followed the Greeks often imitated them. The Romans based many of their values, rules of citizenship, and even religion on the Greek system. Men and women of the Enlightenment could have read the same dialogues that we read today. Why would anyone continue to read these stories? I believe it is the dialogues discussion of individual verses state and state verses religion. These are the truly enduring issues that we will always face.
...purpose is “to unmask the hypocrisy and show how the meaning of Justice is being perverted” . He is not prepared to argue, leaving Socrates victorious. Here, Socrates’s method of argumentative questioning is insufficient and naïve against a stubborn, powerful and philosophically certain moral skeptic. This is confirmed by the change in investigative approach in the latter books. Thus the ‘earlier’ Plato cannot adequately respond to Thrasymachus’s immoralist view of Justice.
For these two articles that we read in Crito and Apology by Plato, we could know Socrates is an enduring person with imagination, because he presents us with a mass of contradictions: Most eloquent men, yet he never wrote a word; ugliest yet most profoundly attractive; ignorant yet wise; wrongfully convicted, yet unwilling to avoid his unjust execution. Behind these conundrums is a contradiction less often explored: Socrates is at once the most Athenian, most local, citizenly, and patriotic of philosophers; and yet the most self-regarding of Athenians. Exploring that contradiction, between Socrates the loyal Athenian citizen and Socrates the philosophical critic of Athenian society, will help to position Plato's Socrates in an Athenian legal and historical context; it allows us to reunite Socrates the literary character and Athens the democratic city that tried and executed him. Moreover, those help us to understand Plato¡¦s presentation of the strange legal and ethical drama.
Plato’s "Apology" gives the substance of the defense made by Socrates to the Athenians at his trial. Meletus, Anytus and Lyncon brought Socrates to court on charges of corrupting the morals of the youth, leading the youth away from the principals of democracy, neglecting the Gods of the State and introducing new divinities.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group. 2003. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC "Sojourner Truth." Feminist Writers. St. James Press, 1996.
On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King made his famous “I Have a dream” speech on the Lincoln Memorial after the March on Washington. He delivered this speech to millions of people blacks and whites. This is one of the greatest speeches because it has many elements like pathos, logos, ethos, repetition, assonance, and consonance.
Socrates reaches a conclusion that defies a common-sense understanding of justice. Nothing about his death sentence “seems” just, but after further consideration, we find that his escape would be as fruitless as his death, and that in some sense, Socrates owes his obedience to whatever orders Athens gives him since he has benefited from his citizenship.
Now that there is an understanding of the paintings and their history we will compare and contrast the elements of design of each painting. The first element of design that will be looked at is line. Line has two characteristics, one is direction and the other is linear quality. Direction of line is “related to our experience of gravity” (Notes). These lines can be either horizontal or vertical. Horizontal lines are calm and balanced lines as seen in “The Death of Socrates”. Vertical lines “defy gravity” (Notes) and contain dynamic lines. Dynamic lines are diagonal lines that give art work a sense of movement, implied action. They use of vertical lines is best seen in “The Death of Sardanapalus” because of the dynamic use of lines in the painting
During this essay, the trail of Socrates found in the Apology of Plato will be reviewed. What will be looked at during this review is how well Socrates rebuts the charges made against him. We will also talk about if Socrates made the right decision to not escape prison with Crito. Socrates was a very intelligent man; this is why this review is so critical. In Plato’s Apology, it seems that overall Socrates did an effective job using the 3 acts of the mind.
In 1843, an ex-slave named Isabella Baumfree, heard the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to her. He instructed her to take on a new mission of preaching the people to abstain from sin and to change her name to Sojourner Truth (Sojourner Truth PBS). Sojourner left New York City where she had lived working as a housekeeper and going to spiritual gatherings for the past 15 or so years of her life. Traveling up the Connecticut River Valley, Truth gave speeches on rights for women and slaves as an itinerant preacher (Voices of the Civil War). Her work as an abolitionist and women’s rights activist made a difference for African-Americans, women, and the Union during and around the time of the Civil War.
Picture a preacher; one who preaches brimstone and fire with a colossal amount of passion and emotion. One who enthralls the believers and makes them rectify their vile ways. Within the precincts of Ain’t I a Woman? the author exemplifies the passion and ferocity of one of the bigheaded prophets. Sojourner’s words of knowledge concerning women’s privileges and rights, slave women specifically, speak of her distressed encounters and the prejudices she experienced daily. An immense part of the reason that Sojourner’s speech is so influential is the fact that she uses a tremendously robust tone. Her energy denotes that she is quite fervent for her cause, and transmits the same zealousness to the audience through direct and simple sentences. Sojourner’s main goal in the entire essay is to illustrate how she is equivalent to any man that might convey otherwise. A sentence such as; “Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me!”(Truth and Kennedy, p. 23) simply shows the audience that she is ...
More than half of the contributors to this survey know that there are at least 100 million plastic bottle disposed of a day. This is a frightening statistic but it is a hopeful prospect that people know about this because they could be trying to lessen that number by refilling water bottles more and recycling. Two people thought 500 million plastic bottles were disposed of and another two people thought 10 million were disposed.
The growth of racism is proportional to the growth of scout. To Kill a Mockingbird is an example of showing how active racism was during the 20s and the 30s. Life was very different to now, where previously there were still African American slaves that where not recognised or considered equal to the white community. While in the movie, Mississippi Burning, racism is portrayed through the media and also with various film techniques, symbolism and dialogue. The town’s society erupts when the case escalates to be displayed in the media. Racism is symbolic through the white knights of the KKK, who were veteran fighters of the confederate army during the civil war, who were dedicated to stop invaders of black people, Jews, or gays, which is evident in the movie. The most significant racial event that happened in To Kill a Mockingbird was the Tom Robinson trial, where he was accused of the rape of Mayella Ewell, who is described as extremely poor. At the end of Tom Robinson’s trial, it is obvious that he was convicted purely because of his skin colour and that if the community would blame anyone, they would easily pick a man of colour. The connection between the mocking bird and the story is that Tom Robinson is an innocent being, similar to the mockingbird and the story is that Tom is an innocent being, similar to the mockingbird, he has done nothing to bring these troubles upon himself, his only flaw was being too nice to Mayella Ewell and the victim of racial prejudice. A form of discrimination against Tom Robinson was when the Maycomb community formed a mob against him while he was in jail to ensure that he died no matter what the courts verdict was. This example is shown in To Kill a Mockingbird because when the trial was actually in place,
In portfolio optimisation, investors should keep in mind that diversification is key to balance risk and return. Malkiel (2010), reminded investors that the best investment is a well-diversified portfolio, being re-balanced appropriately while adopting a buy-and-hold strategy. A reduction in portfolio volatility can be achieved by diversifying in several securities. However, even with a large number of assets, risk cannot be reduced to zero since portfolios are affected by macroeconomic factors which influence the market (Bodie et Al., 2004). In addition, portfolio returns can never be guaranteed as the future is unpredictable. A famous quote by a Chinese philosopher sums this up:
Race seems to be a common theme throughout history, pertaining to the injustice that one has received based on their background. However, as race is a big issue, interracial issues are higher than ones of a different race, 85% of the time black people are the perpetrators of the crime (Jefferson). In this article, it also talks about how in 2013 a black person is six times more likely to commit a murder than any other race. This fact is shocking but describes why many people have predetermined thoughts concerning black people and their actions. Even though this fact is relevant we cannot simply look at every black person in the same way, because everyone is different and unique in their own way. The quote from Martin Luther King Jr. mentions brotherhood and it being a solid rock, but in actual fact, even your own brother can turn on you. The justice department has been put in place to protect the people and serve as protection for people who are being victimized. Yet police then and now still seem to abuse their authority, "We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality." For generations, police have rightfully and wrongly accused black people purely based on the colour of their skin, but to the lengths, some police officers take it to abuses their position in which one originally trusted. In recent day there have been many cases such as the Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Ferguson and much more that highlight the police in some cases murdering someone just because they stole something and are believed to be carrying an armed weapon. This racial profiling is so wrong, but it still happens to similar extents resulting in another life being taken away. As much as a whole we try to be accepting, but all of it seems to be an illusion as we still cannot move forward and get rid of the
When Socrates was brought to trial for the corruption of the city’s youth he knew he had done nothing wrong. He had lived his life as it should be lead, and did what he ne...