Reasonable choice for Athenians in convicting Socrates of the charges

In 399 B.C., Meletus accused the great philosopher Socrates of corrupting the youth of Athens and introducing strange gods. As a result, the Athenians voted Socrates to be sentenced to death. In terms of the law system, this sentence was in accordance with procedures, and Socrates did not escape. The later generations have different opinions about this event and they also take a sympathetic attitude toward this great man. However, rationally speaking, it was right for the Athenians to convict Socrates of the formal charges. What’s more, it is the Athenians that accomplished Socrates to make his life not in the dark till the final phase.

Socrates was resolutely against the Democrats group to be back in power, and he even regarded the Pericles government as a motley crew. Socrates believed that government with noble dictatorship was more reasonable, and the nation would be stronger on the basis of the charge of the aristocracy. What’s more, he argued that the main reason of the Sparta overcoming Athens was that their leaders are noble with hereditary system, rather than democratically elected. He thought that the Athenians should establish an aristocratic government like the Sparta country, instead of a democracy nation, and the Sparta government should become the reference of the construction of all state powers in the world. (Cathal & Ryan, 2007)

Later, the idea of Plato of socialism was proposed on the basis of the political system of Sparta. In general, Socrates contributed the failure of Athens to democracy, and summarized the victory of Spartan to the aristocracy. Every day he went out for lobby and finally encountered the opposition from people of Athens. Because most people in Athens had been used to the democratic life. And the Athenians thought that it was necessary to eliminate the dictatorial thoughts in order to restore democracy after the war. As a result, they could have little tolerant of the government of Sparta that brought disaster to the Athenians.

In fact, with the wisdom of Socrates, he should have known that people in democracy were far from perfect, but the majority of normal human were easily influenced by emotions. It was unavoidable that people might have revenge attempt towards the noble class. As a result, he should learn from the previous political lesson that to minimize the hostile rather than hatred to add oil on the fire, making people think that he is still posing a threat to the society and political order in Athens, and making the public feel uneasy.

What’s more, according to Plato, Socrates was a wise philosopher and he was good at making speeches. But he clashed on the religion and the people of Athens. In ancient Greece, people not only believed in god of Mount Olympus, but also the  their own god, such as the god of Zeus， which was considered as a symbol of democracy in Athens. However, Socrates did not believe in these gods, because he despised the Athens democracy and the parliamentary system. Thus, he showed disrespect to the culture of Athens. (Ryan, 2010)

Therefore, although Socrates loved his hometown, his political view was not appropriate at that time with such social background. There were the national war and hatred emotion between different races that brought disaster to his hometown, not the democracy. As a result, at the special time with the social environment and political context, convicting Socrates of the formal charges seems to be reasonable in order to maintain social stability.

References
Cathal. W., & Ryan P. (2007). Socrates of Athens: Euthyphro, Socrates' Defense, Crito and the Death Scene from Phaedo. Social Science Research Network.
Ryan K. B. (2010). Athens, a Democracy of Virtue. Department of Political Science.
Available at
http://iis-db.stanford.edu/evnts/5258/Balot,_Athens,_a_Democracy_of_Virtue.pdf


51Due网站原创范文除特殊说明外一切图文著作权归51Due所有；未经51Due官方授权谢绝任何用途转载或刊发于媒体。如发生侵犯著作权现象，51Due保留一切法律追诉权。