Socrates On Politics
Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher who was accused of impiety
and
corrupting the youth of Athens. His sentence was death, byway of
drinking
poison. However, prior to his execution day, a friend, Crito,
offered Socrates
an opportunity to flee Athens, and evade his death sentence.
Socrates refused to
run away, and he justified his reasons to Crito. I agree
with Socrates'
justifications for not escaping, he accepted his death justly
and faced the
sentence the Athenian court declared. Throughout the Crito,
Socrates explains
his reasoning for not evading the government. Socrates
introduces several
pivotal ideas in the dialogue, which led me to agree with
his decision. The
first idea requires a person to contemplate whether or not
the society in which
he lives has a just reasoning behind its' own standards
of right and wrong. The
second idea requires a person to have pride in the
life that he leads. In
establishing basic questions of these two concepts,
Socrates has precluded his
own circumstance and continues to prove that the
choice he has made is just.
"...I am the kind of man who listens only to the
argument that on
reflection seems best to me. I cannot, not that this fate
has come upon me,
discard the arguments used; they seem to me much the same."
Socrates states
that making a conscious choice to remain under the influence
of a society is an
unconscious agreement with that society to live your life
by its' standards and
virtues. It is by this notion that people live by today
as well. For example, a
person chooses to live in a country with a certain
type of government. By making
the choice to live in this country, the person
silently agrees to abide by the
laws of that country, or else suffer the
consequences. It is to this principle
that Socrates adheres to. After
establishing the previous point, Socrates
reinforces his decision by the fact
that the laws and governing agents of the
society must command a certain
degree of respect. Any person who would disobey
these laws creates a
deliberate attempt to destroy them and implicitly the
society that has
imposed them. If the decisions of the city's governing agents
are not
thoroughly respected as just and cohesive parts of society, the
very
structure by which the society stands is subject to collapse. If a
person is
found to be in violation of what his society stands for and does
not accept the
consequences of his actions, then there cannot be a system of
law in place to
create order. "You must either persuade it or obey its
orders, and endure
in silence whatever it instructs you to endure, whether
blows or bond, and if it
leads you into to war or be wounded or killed you
must obey." The society
in which a person lives, creates a mutual
relationship in which every person in
that society is indebted to if he
willingly accepts that society for his own.
Socrates concludes that if he
were to follow Crito's advice he would be
committing several wrong actions
against a society which he calls his own. In
the time of the ancient Greeks,
to disobey your won society, is the to betray
what was taught to be right by
parents. They pass on to their children what they
hold to be true; for they
brought a person into a society that they believed to
be profound and just.
In modern society we have similar beliefs. Parents raise
and teach their
children beliefs and morals that they also hold to be correct.
Socrates
states that by remaining a member of a society, one must in fact accept
the
society as their own. The agreement he made within his city to obey the
laws,
and to live as a good citizen makes the thought of exile shameful
and
therefore unacceptable. Running away from the decision that his own
society has
made would be an affirmation of his own guilt in the eyes of his
family and
peers. Although he may have been wrongly imprisoned and sentenced
to death, he
holds very little value in the belief that two wrongs can
achieve a right. In
this case the wrongs being his wrongful imprisonment, and
his escape. Neither of
these wrongs can achieve a justifiable pardon in
society. He firmly stood before
his own value system and only wished to
preserve the society around him, the
society that at one time accepted him.
He indignantly renounced the idea of
self-preservation and any attempt to
escape because of the potential harm and
damage that it ultimately would
cause. In consideration of Socrates' beliefs, I
feel it is safe to conclude
that Socrates is no more in favor of civil
disobedience then he would be in
disobeying the judgment that was brought down
against him. Socrates holds
incredible respect for the laws that govern him; he
would not permit any
deviance, be it great or small. Ultimately, in my opinion,
Socrates did
the right and commendable thing. He would conclude that even a
peaceful
opposition to his government would be inappropriate.