Socrates and Maintaining a Harmony What is Right a Essay Example For Students

Socrates and Maintaining a Harmony What is Right a Essay nd Expression of OpinionsSocrates and Maintaining a Harmony What is Right and Expression of OpinionsSocrates has thoroughly justified his own decision to obey the opinions of themajority and serve out the sentence that his own city has deemed appropriatefor his crimes. At the beginning of this piece, Socrates has presented aperiod of questions and answers through dialogue with Crito. Throughout thedialogue Socrates is explaining his reasoning for not running from thegovernment. Crito does not understand the madness of Socrates, Crito will dowhatever it takes to help his friend to flee, instead of being exiled by thegovernment.AI do not think that what you are doing is right, to give up yourlife when you can save it, and to hasten your fate as your enemies would hastenit, and indeed have hastened it in their wish to destroy emailprotected(Crito p.58c)Throughout the begining of the dialog, Crito is expressing his feelings of whyhe believes Socrates should flee from the city. Crito make s many valid pointson why he disagrees with Socrates decision to bare this misfortune. Critooffers to do on not fleeingbeing majorints expressing to Socrates, that a manas courageous as Socrates and who has lived his life through virtue . AYou seemto me to choose the easiest path, whereas one should choose the path a good andcourageous man would choose, particularly when one claims throughout ones lifeto care for emailprotected(Crito p.59d) Through the dialogue the questions andanswers within Socrates and Crito establish to major themes in which hold truethroughout the work. The first being that a person must decide whether thesociety in which one lives has a just reasoning behind its own standards ofright and wrong. The second being, that a person must have pride in the lifethat he or she leads. In establishing basic questions of these two concepts,Socrates has precluded his own circumstance and attempted to prove to hiscompanion Crito, that the choice that he has made is just. AI am the kind ofman who listens only to the argument that on reflection seems best to me. Icannot, now that this fate has come upon me, discard the arguments I used; theyseen to me much the emailprotected(Crito p.59b)The introduction of this work hasalso provided the concept that it is our society or majority that has dictatedwhat is considered virtuous action. According to Socrates we have been givenevery opportunity to reject our society and renounce what it has stood for andagainst. ANot one of our laws raises any obstacle or forbids him, if he is notsatisfied with us or the city, if one of you wants to go and live in a colony orwants to go anywhere else, and keep his emailprotected (Crito p.63d) Socratesstates; that making a conscious choice or effort to remain under the influenceof a society is an unconscious agreement with that society to live your life byits standards and virtues. Socrates states after establishing his own agreement with his citys virtuesthat he believes in the validity of the decision imposed upon himself. Hestates that his decision is justified by the fact that the laws and governingagents of the society must command a certain degree of respect. Any person whowould unjustly disobey these laws creates a deliberate attempt to destroy them,as well as, the society which has imposed them.For example; AHowever, thatwhoever of you remains when he sees how we conduct our trials and manage thecity in other ways, has in fact come to an agreement with us to obey ouremailprotected (Crito p.63e) If the decisions of the citys governing agentsare not thoroughly respected as just and cohesive parts of society, the verystructure by which the society stands is subject to collapse. If a person isfound to be in violation of what his or her society stands for and does notaccept the consequences for his or her actions, then there can not be a systemof law in plac e to create order. A You must either persuade it or obey itsorders, and endure in silence whatever it instructs you to endure, whetherblows or bonds, and if it leads you into war or be wounded or killed you mustemailprotected(Crito p.63b) The society in which a person lives creates a mutualrelationship in which every person in that society is indebted to, if he or shewillingly accepts that society for their own. My Friend Andrea EssaySocrates has very carefully and thoughtfully consented to what his own city hasdeemed to be righteous and justified. His thoughts on his destiny arecompletely unselfish, as his only wish is to preserve the society around himwhich has accepted him and his family for so many years. He has indignantlyrenounced the idea of self preservation and any attempt to escape because of thepotential harm and damage that it ultimately will cause. The disgrace ofthought as he being guilty would force all that he has forged to hide in exilefrom the wrath of the society which he has protected. Socrates has succeeded in justifying his actions by showing how devastating hisdisobedience could possibly be. In considering all of the points that he hasmade in the defense of his decision. Socrates can maintain his own pride, andsense of right and wrong. He has shown others, such as Crito . There is acertain satisfaction in maintaining ones own innocence while not accepting ahollow victory for one may possibly last for many societys yet to come. By maintaining a harmony between what is right and the expression of a personsown opinions he has made possible the ultimate truth, the belief in what hasworked and staying within the boundaries of decent and god fearing society. The laws of the society in which Socrates lived condemned him to die for hisown conviction and the reasons for Socrates to remain and accept thepunishments of that society have proved to be wise and justified. Philosophy