Socrates, born around 470 BC, was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is a well-known through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon. Through his portrayal in Plato 's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and Socrates who also lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic Method. Plato’s Socrates also made important and lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic. It is highly debatable how far an individual can truly separate the laws of a state from the people who apply them. Socrates poses the question: should the individual obey He is confident he has done the right thing because, he says, he hears a voice when he is about to do something wrong saying, “Don’t do it.” In his ending speech, he says that death may not be a punishment; maybe death is a never-ending sleep. Socrates states that a just person has nothing to fear and eventually the jury will pay for being unjust. When trying to convince Socrates to escape from jail, Crito tries to persuade Socrates to believe that being in jail is unjust because his children will be orphaned.
Socrates deals with this issue by explaining that escaping would be unjust. He says one must accept the consequences as a person who breaks the law. He tells Crito that his children will not in fact be orphaned because he has Crito to take care of them. If
Socrates were to escape, he says, that other people will perceive him as a breaker of the law and not accept him with open arms as Crito tries to suggest. Socrates also deals with this issue by stating that it is wrong to harm anyone and when you harm someone, you are harming yourself. From this, we are given the pillars: no one does evil willingly; all evil is done in
Once someone has a firm decision, and takes action, no one can tell them that they cannot. They also must know their limitations and understand that they do not know everything. It is okay for one to say that they do not know the answer to a specific question, but they must know that they will find the answer eventually. People should also expand their horizons by educating themselves and furthering their knowledge. He believed education increased the nothingness around us and helped solidify the things in our life that were real. He also taught people that whatever they have in their life was enough and to make the mistake of looking for happiness from some far off goal. . One of his most famous quotes is, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This quote says a lot about his character because Socrates believed the purpose of life was personal and spiritual
Socrates refuses to disobey the law. He believes in the correctness of the cities laws. He believes it is never right to act unjustly. He thinks that if you do not agree with the laws of the area that you are living at, then to leave and go somewhere else. He argues that the government could be seen as “his parents, also those who brought him up,” (Crito, 51e), since he has lived there his entire life and when you live somewhere for so long you should “persuade us or to do what we say,” (Crito, 52a) or leave. Socrates tells Crito that
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.
In today’s society, no man can be sentence to die because he speaks out his mind, everyone is entitle to freedom of speech. If Socrates were alive today, he would have being able to express his mind with out being sentence to die.
In what is noted as one of Plato first accounts, we become acquainted with a very intriguing man known as Socrates; a man, whose ambition to seek knowledge, inevitably leaves a significant impact on humanity. Most of all, it is methodologies of attaining this knowledge that makes him so mesmerizing. This methodology is referred to as Socratic irony, in literature. In any case, I will introduce the argument that Plato's Euthyphro is extremely indicative of this type of methodology, for the reason being that: Socrates's portrays a sense of intellectual humility.
Socrates was a famous Athenian philosopher who was sentenced to death for the charges of corruption of the youth and impiety, or the act of not worshipping Athenian gods. In Plato’s dialogue, The Crito, Socrates argues to Crito his reasoning to stay in prison. Socrates gives three major explanations why he should not escape; the first being that if he escapes he it would be unjust to the state, the second being that people must always keep their promise, and lastly we must obey or respect our parents and teachers. The purpose of this essay is to show that Socrates’ arguments are flawed.
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.
Consequently, Socrates was afraid that the state would harm his family by depriving them of property or citizenship. His principles obligated him to stay in prison in order for him not to violate his principle of harming others. Socrates was a man of good principles. He was not afraid of committing himself as a sacrifice to save his family’s rights. He knew that his situation caused a dilemma that needed to be taken into consideration by reasoning what was right.
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.
He feels that an unjust action against the State, would do more harm to himself and the State, than any good that could come of it. Leaving and breaking the law, would in fact make him guilty of the charges set against him. He would then be a corruptor of youth, setting out to bring down the State that he loves so dearly. Referring back to the concept of rational reflection, Socrates feels that is bound by his agreements, whether the outcome will cause his own death.
In 399 BC, Socrates, the great philosopher in ancient Greece, was put to death under the hands of his Athenian fellow-citizens to whom he had a strong attachment, after a final vote with over two-thirds of jurymen against him. We cannot experience the situation where Socrates gave his final argument in the court of law. From Plato’s Apology, we admire Socrates’ brilliant rhetoric and rigorous logic, while at the same time feel pity for him and indignant with those ruthless jurymen. However, the question of what exactly caused his death and why was Socrates, such a remarkable thinker sentenced to death in the very society that valued democracy the most is not easy and straightforward to answer. There are multiple elements involved that finally caused this tragedy in which “a person of high moral principle is confronted step by step with a situation from which there is no escape” (38). First of all, the moral principle and belief in divinity held by Socrates are inconsistent with those of the Athenian society, implying the very crimes charged upon Socrates were not completely groundless. Secondly, the imperfect juridical system of Athens played a role in causing this tragedy. What’s more, Socrates himself, could have offered better defense in the court, also had a hand in his own death by his stubbornness regarding to his own interpretation of wisdom and piety. His rebuttal, though brilliant and insightful, was not persuasive enough to move the fellow-citizens for his wrong approach and sophistry in his cross-examination on Meletus.
Socrates’ argument in his defense of not leaving prison is formulated on the basis that no harm should ever be done to another person. In Socrates’ discussion with Crito, they both agree that harm should never be done regardless of being wronged. Following their agreement on no harm ever being committed, they also agree that if someone comes to a just agreement with another person, then they should fulfill that agreement. Socrates’ next point comes from whether or not harm is being inflicted if that agreement is not fulfilled. Socrates says that if those who enforce the law cannot enforce those same laws, then it would be an attempt to destroy the city.
In Plato’s work, Crito gives many reasons as to why Socrates should escape, including how Socrates will be throwing his life away and into disgrace for both him and his friends for failing in breaking him out. But Socrates seems to have made up his mind in saying “what we ought to consider is not so much what people in general say about us but how we stand with the expert in right and wrong, the one authority who represents the actual truth” (580). What this means is that we shouldn’t listen to the popular opinion simply because it is there. We should spend less time worrying about what others think and what matters is how we stand with the correct person. In this situation, Socrates is blindly following authority and is not thinking for himself.
Socrates is a famous philosopher whose work and wisdom has not been forgotten, and it is doubted that it will be forgotten. His philosophy was not understood by many at his time. Not only did they not understand it, but they also felt ignorant about it. Thus, formed an anger within them that the only way to cease it was by imprisoning him. Socrates however, never failed to accept that his philosophy was wrong. Ergo, he felt the urge to preach philosophy as much as he could. Realizing that prison was not going to bring an end to Socrates way of thinking, and the preaching of his philosophy, they then decided to kill him. This however did not have an impact of Socrates what so ever. For Socrates being a philosopher, the body and the soul were
Crito stated the opinion of the others should be feared because they control his ultimate destiny. Socrates is not disturbed. He believes that death is not necessarily an evil thing. It is the committing of the senseless act that should be feared rather than having to die. Many think that it is within their power to do evil to one, who has lost their good favor, but this is not the case. They cannot make a person wise or foolish, nor can they cause him to do good or evil.
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...