Danielle Benedict: Outside Reading (2)
Plato-The Apology
"Someone will say: And are you not
ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an
untimely end?
To him I may fairly answer: There you are
mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of
living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is
doing right or wrong--acting the part of a good man or of a bad.”
Socrates was formally charged with warping the minds of the local youth and failing to acknowledge the city gods. He was sentenced to drink a lethal poison, hemlock. Now that the end of his life is in view, Socrates is being asked if he has any regrets. Would he want a “do over” or is he sure that it was all worth it? That is an immensely hard question: was your life worth anything of substance or was it a waste? At points in each of our lives, I am sure we have felt both sides of that question. What are you doing with your existence and will it matter once you are gone? Will people tell stories of your choices? Lewis wrote these stories of characters with capacity to sacrifice for the greater good. To quote J.R.R. Tolkien, “there is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for” (The Two Towers). Socrates believed what he was doing was right and followed that conviction up until his execution.
When individuals realize that their life is about more than themselves and their personal desires that is when significant changes occur, such as moral revolutions and physical revolts. The idea of laying down self for something greater terrifies most. Others will always criticize a course of action that is different than the norm. They are especially likely to poke fun at someone, like Socrates, who has “lost” during an attempt to shake things up. Socrates is at peace because he has confidence in his actions and feels no shame even during the trial. He put it most eloquently when he said: “God orders me to fulfill the philosopher's mission of searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death, or any other fear; that would indeed be strange.”
Socrates was formally charged with warping the minds of the local youth and failing to acknowledge the city gods. He was sentenced to drink a lethal poison, hemlock. Now that the end of his life is in view, Socrates is being asked if he has any regrets. Would he want a “do over” or is he sure that it was all worth it? That is an immensely hard question: was your life worth anything of substance or was it a waste? At points in each of our lives, I am sure we have felt both sides of that question. What are you doing with your existence and will it matter once you are gone? Will people tell stories of your choices? Lewis wrote these stories of characters with capacity to sacrifice for the greater good. To quote J.R.R. Tolkien, “there is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for” (The Two Towers). Socrates believed what he was doing was right and followed that conviction up until his execution.
When individuals realize that their life is about more than themselves and their personal desires that is when significant changes occur, such as moral revolutions and physical revolts. The idea of laying down self for something greater terrifies most. Others will always criticize a course of action that is different than the norm. They are especially likely to poke fun at someone, like Socrates, who has “lost” during an attempt to shake things up. Socrates is at peace because he has confidence in his actions and feels no shame even during the trial. He put it most eloquently when he said: “God orders me to fulfill the philosopher's mission of searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death, or any other fear; that would indeed be strange.”
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