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The death sentence controversy
Law, morality and politics
Controversies surrounding the death penalty
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Socrates' Last Error
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.
The dialogue "Crito" recounts Socrates' last days, immediately before his execution. As the text reveals, his friend Crito proposes to Socrates that he escape from prison. In a dialogue with Crito, Socrates considers the proposal, trying to establish whether an act like that would be just and morally justified. Eventually, he came to argue that by rejecting his sentence and by trying to escape from prison he would commit unjust and morally unjustified acts. Therefore, he decided to accept his death penalty and execution. Because of his decision, he became one of the cult figures in the history of philosophy, a man of intact moral integrity who had made his final decision according to the very same principles that guided his entire life. He was praised as a grand rationalist who had acted rationally and justly—a view which, I believe, represents one of the greatest myths in the history of philosophy.
Contrary to this widely accepted myth, I will try to demonstrate that Socrates' argument was erroneous, which made his decision less rational. In fact, had he decided to escape, his behavior would not have represented an unjust act. Although his argumentation and dialogue with Crito seem more like a moral sermon, his ...
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... of Law and State, p. 113.
(2) Hart, The Concept of Law, p. 203.
(3) Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, question 95.
(4) Plato, Crito, in: The Works of Plato, The Nottingham Society, New York, vol. III, p. 125-6. (the year of publication unknown).
(5) Ibid. p. 126.
(6) Ibid. p. 126.
(7) H. L., Hart, The Concept of Law, ch. VIII, and D., Lyons, Ethics and the rule of law, Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 78 ff,
(8) D., Lyons, Ethics and the Rule of Law, Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 81.
(9) Plato, The Apology, in: The Works of Plato, The Nottingham Society, New York, vol. III, p. 91. (the year of publication unknown).
(10) Plato, Crito, in: The Works of Plato, The Nottingham Society, New York, vol. III, p. 129. (the year of publication unknown).
(11) Ibid., 124.
(12) Ibid., 124.
(13) St. Augustine, Confessions, IV.
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.
Have you ever pondered about when growing up, where does our childlike innocence go and what happens to us to go through this process? It involves abandoning previous memories that are close to our hearts. As we can see in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, we listen to what the main character; Holden Caulfield has to say about it. Holden is an average teenager dealing with academic and life problems. He remains untouched over his expulsion from Pencey Prep; rather, he takes the opportunity to take a “vacation.” As he ventures off companionless in New York City, we are able to observe many things about him. We see that Holden habitually states that he is depressed and undoubtedly, wants to preserve the innocence of others.
His military career was slow to start. Sherman first saw a little bit of action in Florida. He was a commander in the second Seminole war. He had various duty stations in Georgia, and South Carolina. While serving in those areas, he met some of the oldest, most respected families in the South. Sherman’s early military career was not all that exciting compared to most of his colleagues that served in the Mexican-American war, seeing lots of combat. Sherman on the other hand was stationed in California as an executive officer or as we say in the military, a xo.
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.
Culver, Keith Charles. Readings in the philosophy of law. 1999. Reprint. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2008. Print.
Black children are disproportionately represented in the foster care system. In the most recent Statistical Abstract published in 2011 by the U.S. Census Bureau, Black children accounted for 15% of the U.S. child population in 2009. In contrast, Black children were at almost 30% of the total number of children in foster care for the same year according to the Department of Health and Human Services 2009 Foster Care report. In addition, there are not enough Black families available to adopt these children. Interracial adoption advocates often hail it as a good solution to address these problems. Interracial adoption is promoted as a major step towards an integrated, unprejudiced, and colorblind society. However, instead of healing the wounds of racism, interracial adoption often contributes to racist ideologies and practices that devalue family relationships in the Black community (Roberts 50). This type of adoption is a surface only solution that fails to dig deeper and address the underlying reasons for the disproportionate representation of Black children in foster care and the lack of minority adoptive parents. This deeper analysis exposes a system of that is very biased against the Black community in the adoption industry. Even when it is altruistic, interracial adoption is mostly detrimental to the Black community because it aids in the breakdown of Black families and the dismissal of the root causes of the circumstances that lead to large numbers of Black children needing to be adopted in the first place. Furthermore, interracial adoption has not made any significant difference in lowering the numbers of Black children in foster care.
Out of the confrontation with Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus, Socrates emerges as a reflective individual searching for the rational foundation of morality and human excellence. The views presented by the three men are invalid and limited as they present a biased understanding of justice and require a re-examination of the terminology. The nature in which the faulty arguments are presented, leave the reader longing to search for the rational foundations of morality and human virtue.
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.
Transracial adoption has a lengthy history of controversies. Transracial adoption wasn’t always legal, and in the beginning of 1968, the government passed a law that allowed permitted families to adopt outside their race ("Family Law."). Almost instantly people objected to this law, and a black nationalist group known as National Association of Black Social Workers
A database is a “shared collection of logically related data designed to meet the information needs of multiple users in an organization” (Hoffer 709). Databases contain data records or files, such as sales transactions, product catalogs and inventories, and customer profiles. Databases allows multiple users in an organization to easily access, manage, store, and update data when needed.
Delobel, C., C. Lecluse, and P. Richard. Databases: From Relational to Object-Oriented Systems. ITP, 1995.
Children in foster care aren’t given the choice between a perfect family or an adopted family, but instead the choice of an adopted family or no family at all. Yet, even this choice is being taken away from a majority of children in foster care, more specifically the black children in foster care. To a majority of adoption agencies foster care is almost always prefered over transracial adoption. Race should not be a factor in considering adoption, because as soon as race is taken into consideration tens of thousands of children are being deprived of a family and the opportunities of others, simply because of the racial and cultural beliefs of someone who quite obviously does not have the child’s best interests at heart.
1) Marra, James L., Zelnick, Stephen C., and Mattson, Mark T. IH 51 Source Book: Plato, The Republic, pp. 77-106
Ahrens, M., Brush, Grass, and Forest Fires, 0877650357, National Fire Protection Association, Fire Analysis and Research Division, 2010.