What Are The Overall Mindsets Of Socratic Ethics

Socratic Ethics In the article, “ Introduction to Socratic Ethics”, Russo discusses how Socrates emerged as a renowned philosopher and the ethical position that Socrates establishes as a philosopher. To begin with, Socrates devoted his life to “act as a kind of “gadfly”; throughout Athens, Socrates questioned and provoked people “into recognizing their moral ignorance”(Russo 1). Socrates believed he was the wisest man in the world because he understood how ignorant he was. To implement his standpoint in ethics, and draw out ignorance from other people, Socrates used a method of argument called “elenchus” or examination. Socrates examined people for the purpose of showing “how little they actually know” about their own expertise (Russo 2).

In my opinion, the way Socrates viewed life was very thoughtful and efficient. Socrates pondered on issues that many people overlooked or plainly do not care about. As a philosopher he uncovered what was wrong in society and believed the only way to solve this problems was to work on the soul. It is difficult to label what is right from wrong, especially when there are many factors that play into a situation. As Socrates stated, most people are ignorant and are blinded by their own perspective of what is right. In human history there have been several situations where a government has believed to make the “ethical” or good decisions but in all reality the choice is simply wrong. In 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Japan. The bomb killed thousands of people, and produced exposure to radiation. The reason behind the bombing was that, “The US military was unwilling to say it could win the war without the bomb” (Maeir CNN). Was launching the bomb an ethical choice? The United States assumed that launching the bomb was “good” for the American people but the suffering and destruction that the action caused cannot be considered ethical or right, in fact it was wrong. Another example is the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Al-Queda, a terrorist group stationed in Afghanistan, launched an attack on the United States. The attack caused several deaths and destruction. According to Osama Bin Laden, the attack was “declaration of a holy war against the United States” (Wikipedia). The radical Islamic group believed that their attack was good yet it caused the death of many innocent people and a state of alarm for a whole nation. The following examples support Socrates view of “knowing the good and yet doing the evil”. A present day example is the role of humans in global climate change. Many people around the globe believe that extracting petroleum from the