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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In this well- reasoned essay of 4 pages, the writer analyzes Socrates' decision to remain in prison and await death-- even when Crito gave him the opportunity to flee. It is argued that Socrates' choice was a logical one in light of his own philosophy : civil obedience was of primary importance and even if his pending execution wasn't morally just, Socrates recognized it as civil law. It is ultimately concluded that Socrates could not have ever justified his own philosophies and be remembered in the same light if he had escaped from prison to save his own life. No Bibliography.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Socrapri.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
whether or not to follow an unjust law was never an issue. Evidently, that was an argument that Aristotle later participated in and that carried over into our contemporary
American society with civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., preaching that unjust laws should not be followed. But Socrates was a man who believed otherwise and
his thoughts were intricately clear on the matter. As an individual of great virtue, Socrates can not be thought of as foolish for having remained in jail to await
death even when presented with the opportunity to escape and to live on. While there is good reason to challenge the unjust law in todays societies, Socrates under his
own philosophy, could have never been justified if a hypocritical escape from prison was made. For Socrates to leave jail and to avoid death
would have been a direct disobedience of civil law and consequently it would have contradicted everything that the philosopher taught. The appropriate government representatives found him guilty of a
crime, allowed him the opportunity to speak and to come up with a lesser penalty; but he was adamantly contemptuous towards them. More significantly, Socrates knew that he was
in violation of the law and acknowledged that he should be punished accordingly. His "apology" was not a request for forgiveness, but rather a presentation of his reason.
Socrates did not willingly ask to be sentenced to some punishment other than death and so for him to escape prison would have represented the epitome of contradiction and would
have destroyed the validity of his message. Socrates believed himself charged with a mission from God to make the world aware of their
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