Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on socrates beliefs
Why morality is relative
Essay on socrates beliefs
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essay on socrates beliefs
Socrates' Moral Decision To Not Escape
Was Socrates wise to stay in Athens to die? Examine firstly the context of the word wise , Socrates wasn't wise in the sense of preserving his own life as he stayed to die. He was encouraged and given the chance to escape by his friend Crito, but Socrates did not want to escape . Why?
Socrates was a wise man. He believed in absolutes, and pursued the knowledge of man's source of goodness and virtue. He believed that the repayment of evil with evil was wrong. In short, Socrates was a very moral person. He stayed in Athens because he said that he had lived by the laws of the country for all his life. He had enjoyed the privileges of a civilized society, and that he had been treated as any other citizen would have come to expect.
Now that the laws didn't suit him, was it fit for him to ignore them? Crito, in vain, tries to dissuade him.
Socrates compares the laws of the state to a father/mentor figure: The state says that all of the laws and statutes have protected him and raised him.
His parents were married by the law, and the same saw to it that he was educated.
Now the state says "Is it alright for you, who thinks so much of virtue, to destroy us?" Socrates is wise to see that he would be contradicting not only himself, but he would betray the examples he was trying to set to his followers.
The impact ...
Which, is completely unreasonable since his crime was that he stole a book from the library and returned it, if anything he should have been given a small punishment, maybe a therapy session for stealing, not racial insensitivity since no one was getting their race attacked by racist words. Even, then he should be perfect since he “is now on parole”, and will be expel if less than
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.
was on his side, he is then hung for doing something bad but his last
Socrates lived such a private life that it lead to the most important revelation of his entire life. He would go about his life doing nothing but self-examination. In examining his life so strenuously others would come to him to be taught, or to have their children be taught by Socrates. They would offer him money and he would refuse. They would do whatever they could to learn anything Socrates had to teach. What they did not know is that Socrates was not teaching anyone he was simply going about his usual life and people just happened to learn from it. This was also why Socrates was put on trial. He was brought up on two charges, one of impiety and the other of corrupting the youth. These two charges set the course for the last month of his life.
in some ways he did do the right thing because if he let the others
before he was even convicted of the crime! Mr. Stevenson spends so much time advocating for
Upon reading Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates, Socrates strongly held views on the relationship between morality and laws become apparent to the reader. Equally, Socrates makes clear why laws should be followed and why disobedience to the law is rarely justified.
with those ideals that he had considered far beyond him. He smiled in deep gratification
had to go through in his life in his attempts for justice to be served.
...uments are completely different. Crito wants Socrates to escape because he doesn’t deserve to die because he did nothing wrong. Socrates argues back that if he escapes he will be breaking the law. Which is the thing that he is trying to uphold. Socrates believes that escaping will go against all the things he has been arguing and teaching the youth.
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.
not go his way so the consequences did exist and he had to pay for the
all of these individuals into his ball of confusion against their will? How come he did not
a good decision. What if he was a pacifist? He would not have handled this situation the way
Socrates felt that, above all, one should be a good citizen and always do the right thing (Plato 18). However, many in his time did not worry about doing what was correct. Socrates realized this, and understood that they did not care to look into their actions and beliefs. Their first thoughts were on the goals that they had, such as money and pleasure, rather than the thought of whether or not the goals they held were actually what should have been considered important and right (Plato 26). Socrates knew that, unless they took the time to question their lifestyles, they would never do the right thing. By living a life that was being examined, the citizens would be living a life that was, for the most part, also right. Socrates believed that a life that was not right was not worth living, which is why he also felt as though an unexamined life would also be not worth living.