Monday, 10 October 2011

Question #1: Are the charges against S legitimate? Is this a fair trial?

The charges, impiety/introducing strange gods, and corrupting the youth, and in order possibly legitimate, and very hardly legitimate. This is of course if we take the perspective of the Greeks. In that perspective, whether or not the charge is actually true or false is really only a matter of relying on Socrates word. In his discussion with Euthyphro he seems to pretty fully understand the gods of the time and how they operate, like how he disproves Euthyphro's arguement by mentioning that all the gods like different things, and he goes to give examples of this. By "introducing strange gods" they seem to allude to the muse-like spirit Socrates claims to know guides him and his decisions in many things. Besides the technical fact that Socrates does not refer to this spirit as a "god" nor does he believe it is one, Socrates has never at all attempted to make others follow this spirit, or praise it or sacrifice to it. Socrates believes it is a personal guide and has not tried to spread this to anyone else, and I would think that "introducing a strange god" would mean to somebody other than himself.

As for whether Socrates' trial was fair, that again is a matter of perspective. By the Greeks' perspectives it was a perfectly valid and democratic trial, aside from the question of the legitimacy of the actual charges. In today's society, however, Socrates would most definitely not hve been condemned, as for one thing, greek society paid little or no attention to physical proof, the very keystone of today's legal system. The Greek legal system was one relying more on how well a person spoke (or as Socrates said, how much they pleaded and appealed to the judges), which now has very little no no standing today in how the accused is judged. However, then there was no such thing as an acquittal based on a lack of evidence, or the mandate of "innocence until proven guilty". Socrates may well have hit the nail on the proverbial head when he states that the judges will judge based on their preconceived notions of him rather than the facts.

1 comment:

  1. Good work, Danica. You point out a number of flaws in the case against Socrates. However, your response could be improved by allowing you OWN argument to shine through a bit more. You point to the differences between Ancient Greek culture and our own society (in terms of how justice is administered). However, we need to see more specific arguments about how Socrates' actions are indeed justified.

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