Monday, October 22, 2012
Why you have to go and make things so complicated?
I think the reason why Socrates gets in such trouble with everyone is that he wants a formula for life. He wants someone to tell him a concept that he can apply to all of his other problems, like when you know addition, then you can add any two numbers together and get an answer.
However, life doesn't have a secret formula or a one size fits all. Socrates tells Crito that he can't escape his sentence because that would be disobeying the laws, which would then be unjust. Because in order to be just, you have to obey the law.
First of all, I feel bad for Socrates because I feel like he ties himself in knots. You know what I would do if I was in his boat? I would just ask God what to do. Instead of putting my faith in human wisdom and all the moral precepts in the world, I would just ask God if he wanted me to escape from prison or get put on death row.
Ultimate justice is defined by God because God is just, so the question is, what does God want you to do? Because if you follow what God tells you to do, your actions will be just.
(P.S. commented on Michelle Nellsch's Women's rights in ancient Greece.)
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I completely agree with you here, however, it is hard to say 'Socrates should've listened to God' because back then God wasn't really in the equation. That being said, when applying all these Plato books to our lives, I am with you 100%. God is Justice. Therefore, if we are under His direction our actions are just. Saying we would be just because of Him however, is a very touchy thing to say because so many people do have the ability to be just under Him yet, they chose injustice.
ReplyDeleteThat is very true. That reminds me of people who've said their actions are justified because they're acting for God, but they're really not. Like the crusades or the spanish inquisition. Thanks for the comment!
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