the death of Socrates
If you go time-traveling back to the streets in Athens 2430 years ago or so, you may encounter an old man with long beard, intelligent eyes and bald glorious forehead. He may grab you suddenly and ask you some serious questions which you take for granted, or anything you hold as unshakable truth. He kept asking you questions one by one, inspiring you or refuting you. I think you have guessed this wise man is Socrates.
Socrates and other philosophers, for example the sophists (sophistes), assembled on the streets and square freely expressing their views about all the serious issues of human nature, philosophy, culture, politics and so on. Sophists paid much attention to the logic of debate while Socrates spared no efforts to explore the wisdom, or the philosophy itself. The core of his philosophy is Arete and it also established a basic orientation for the western philosophy. That people in Athens debated with each other or talked about all kinds of philosophical problems is a way of living. I mean the debate happened anytime anywhere, on the street, on the square, or in the academy.
Because the ancient Greek culture is not ongoing all the time through the history, that way of living in Athens has gone completely. People nowadays who live in Athens have lost their glorious tradition.
Of course the democracy in Athens is limited. However, even if we compare the politics and culture in Athens with those of any countries nowadays, it’s still admirable for its pursuit of wisdom and philosophic lifestyle.
I’d like to introduce two important conditions of ancient Greece democracy. Firstly, Athens was one of the biggest city states in Ancient Greece where there were 100 thousand people or so and less than 30 thousand of them were male grown-up citizens who had political rights. The actual costs of democratic politics were acceptable due to the great commerce in Athens. Secondly, most of the population were slaveries who labored day and night to provide an abundant life for freemen. So the male grown-up citizens had a lot of free time and energy to discuss politics in the city state.
The age when Socrates lived in Athens met the eclipse of its prosperity and the death of Socrates was a landmark event. People used to think the death of Socrates was due to the evil of democracy as he was sentenced to death by Jury.
However, in fact there were multiple reasons of Socrates’ death.
Firstly, we could use Hegel’s theory of tragedy to explain Socrates’ death. Hegel’s theory is that the contradiction of two rationalities leads to tragedy. That’s to say, two ideas are both rational, but they contradict each other and then here comes the tragedy. Socrates criticized the democracy in Athens and preferred rules of experts. Socrates thought a small group of experts with considerable knowledge, virtues and wisdom should rule the country while most male grown-up citizens favored democracy. This is the main root of his death.
Secondly, the jury which judged Socrates was made up of 500 hundred people, of whom 220 people found him guilty and 280 people found him innocent. According to the Athens laws, if Socrates paid a certain amount of fine he could escape the death penalty. Socrates not only didn’t pay the fine, but also claimed that he was a gift given to the Athens people by Apollo, so he shouldn’t be sentenced to death and the city state should offer free accommodation for him. This remark infuriate Athens people to sentence him to death.
Thirdly, at that time the ships making pilgrimage to Delphi Temple didn’t arrive in Athens. According to the custom, during this period the death penalty couldn’t be executed. So Socrates had plenty of time to flee. His students had bought off the guards and were ready to escort him to escape. But Socrates refused to flee, as he insisted that he was an eligible citizen and should comply with the judgment even though the judgment itself was wrong.
To sum up, Socrates seemed to court death. He wanted to wake Athens people up with his death. Socrates compared himself to a gadfly and Athens a slow horse, thus he needed to pierce this slow horse to urge it to advance.
Socrates is regarded as a respectable martyr. From the individual perspective, what I adore most of Socrates is his spirit of questioning. The French philosopher, Descartes has a saying, “I think therefore I am”. It’s not the narrow traditional explanation of idealism, but full of wisdom...
Socrates and other philosophers, for example the sophists (sophistes), assembled on the streets and square freely expressing their views about all the serious issues of human nature, philosophy, culture, politics and so on. Sophists paid much attention to the logic of debate while Socrates spared no efforts to explore the wisdom, or the philosophy itself. The core of his philosophy is Arete and it also established a basic orientation for the western philosophy. That people in Athens debated with each other or talked about all kinds of philosophical problems is a way of living. I mean the debate happened anytime anywhere, on the street, on the square, or in the academy.
Because the ancient Greek culture is not ongoing all the time through the history, that way of living in Athens has gone completely. People nowadays who live in Athens have lost their glorious tradition.
Of course the democracy in Athens is limited. However, even if we compare the politics and culture in Athens with those of any countries nowadays, it’s still admirable for its pursuit of wisdom and philosophic lifestyle.
I’d like to introduce two important conditions of ancient Greece democracy. Firstly, Athens was one of the biggest city states in Ancient Greece where there were 100 thousand people or so and less than 30 thousand of them were male grown-up citizens who had political rights. The actual costs of democratic politics were acceptable due to the great commerce in Athens. Secondly, most of the population were slaveries who labored day and night to provide an abundant life for freemen. So the male grown-up citizens had a lot of free time and energy to discuss politics in the city state.
The age when Socrates lived in Athens met the eclipse of its prosperity and the death of Socrates was a landmark event. People used to think the death of Socrates was due to the evil of democracy as he was sentenced to death by Jury.
However, in fact there were multiple reasons of Socrates’ death.
Firstly, we could use Hegel’s theory of tragedy to explain Socrates’ death. Hegel’s theory is that the contradiction of two rationalities leads to tragedy. That’s to say, two ideas are both rational, but they contradict each other and then here comes the tragedy. Socrates criticized the democracy in Athens and preferred rules of experts. Socrates thought a small group of experts with considerable knowledge, virtues and wisdom should rule the country while most male grown-up citizens favored democracy. This is the main root of his death.
Secondly, the jury which judged Socrates was made up of 500 hundred people, of whom 220 people found him guilty and 280 people found him innocent. According to the Athens laws, if Socrates paid a certain amount of fine he could escape the death penalty. Socrates not only didn’t pay the fine, but also claimed that he was a gift given to the Athens people by Apollo, so he shouldn’t be sentenced to death and the city state should offer free accommodation for him. This remark infuriate Athens people to sentence him to death.
Thirdly, at that time the ships making pilgrimage to Delphi Temple didn’t arrive in Athens. According to the custom, during this period the death penalty couldn’t be executed. So Socrates had plenty of time to flee. His students had bought off the guards and were ready to escort him to escape. But Socrates refused to flee, as he insisted that he was an eligible citizen and should comply with the judgment even though the judgment itself was wrong.
To sum up, Socrates seemed to court death. He wanted to wake Athens people up with his death. Socrates compared himself to a gadfly and Athens a slow horse, thus he needed to pierce this slow horse to urge it to advance.
Socrates is regarded as a respectable martyr. From the individual perspective, what I adore most of Socrates is his spirit of questioning. The French philosopher, Descartes has a saying, “I think therefore I am”. It’s not the narrow traditional explanation of idealism, but full of wisdom...
