Midterm: How did Socrates die?

How did Socrates die?

        

Socrates, also known as Plato was a one of the best philosopher known to man; he opened student’s eyes to the truth about concepts, like piety, justice, and morality. Socrates helped them expand their minds to see the underlying relationships between many things and see things in new ways. He was born in Greece in 469 B.C. and died at the age of seventy one in 399 B.C. Socrates believed that life is not worth living if you just let it happen to you. He says that we need to reflect inwardly to recognize our true self and our motivations for our actions. He felt that we needed to examine our values to see that they are good and worthy as well as believing we should nourish our souls as we gain knowledge and insight about our self and the world.

Socrates teaching philosophy to children caused problems amongst their parents. Socrates was put to death for teaching what he believed in, using philosophy to determine how we should live. Though he found it important that his students should worry more about the welfare of their souls rather than the well being of their career and families didn’t matter, Socrates was put to trail where the jury condemned him guilty and wanted him put to death. During these times people who were on death row are put to death by drinking of the hemlock plant.

I believe that Socrates’ death was justified, he was put to death for voicing his opinion and today we have laws that give people the right to do so. Socrates didn’t’ t believe in the gods Athens’s wanted him to believe in, he made up gods of his own which was very displeasing to others around him. The thought that someone can come in and teach something of their own knowledge and experience without the consent of everyone else was illegal. We have many freedoms such as the Freedom of Speech law that allow us to voice our opinion on anything that we may not agree with, for example if I didn’t agree with a certain way of living, as Socrates did, I can write or even teach a class about it. We have the right to make theories and pass our own judgments on anything we feel are necessary, it may be frowned upon but it’s not illegal.

I do applaud Socrates for accepting to die even though he knew it was unjust. Socrates responded with peace and took his last moments in honoring his friends. After drinking the poisonous hemlock mixture Socrates acted as if he wanted to make his last moments remember able, he placed his arms around his friends and continued to carry on a conversation as if they were just hanging out. The reason Socrates didn’t flee like his friends suggested was because he knew the importance of why he was being put to death and accepted it though he didn’t agree.