Socrates' Choice
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. 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. After establishing the previous poi
Some common words found in the essay are:
Crito Socrates, , governing agents, idea requires person, society stands, person society, idea requires, live country, requires person, wrongs achieve, society own,
Approximate Word count = 851
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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