We do not have any writings of Socrates himself preserved. Instead, we have reports about Socrates in the works of Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes, and later writers. There are many different opinions about justice that are attributed to Socrates in these works, and thus it is unclear precisely which of these opinions you are being asked to comment on. Also, you are being asked by your instructor for your own opinion, which depends not just on information about Socrates but your own personal conception of what is just.
One of the most interesting points about justice attributed to Socrates by Plato is the notion that it is better to be the victim of an injustice than one who commits an injustice. Socrates, in Gorgias, argues that one who suffers an injustice (such as the victim of a robbery) only loses material goods, a temporary loss that affects the least important things in our lives, while a person who commits an injustice injures his or her own soul, a far deeper and more lasting form of harm. As to whether you agree with this, it will depend on the relative degree to which you value external goods versus moral character.
Another interesting point you might consider is found in Crito, in which Socrates argues that one should obey the laws of one's city even if they are unjust. He argues this point in terms of the debt one owes to the laws and the civic society they enable. This again is a point on which your opinion will depend on your own ideas and experience; there is no right or wrong answer here as philosophers have taken both sides on the question.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Do you think Socrates gave a solid opinion about justice? If not, why?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
Hello! This expression is already a sum of two numbers, sin(32) and sin(54). Probably you want or express it as a product, or as an expressi...
-
Macbeth is reflecting on the Weird Sisters' prophecy and its astonishing accuracy. The witches were totally correct in predicting that M...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
No comments:
Post a Comment