Evil vs Evil
Fight evil with evil?
While reading The Crito we learn of the infamous philosopher Socrates being held as a criminal for his teachings in the Ancient Greek world. His wealthy friend, Crito, the one that the passage is named off of, tries to tell Socrates that his fate isn’t as close as it seems, explaining that an sufficient amount of money could lead to his freedom. Crito tries to save his life by bribing the city of Athens to free him of jail and thus ending the trial that would’ve ended his life. Socrates declines his proposal, basing that he is honoring his teachings and ideas and saying that he reaped what he sow. This decision by Socrates will be very crucial on what learning what evil is, and thus, can one defend one’s self against evil by doing evil, or the person fighting evil lose all reason because they themselves used evil to fight evil?
While in prison, Socrates talks about the Almighty God, being that Socrates is an individual guided by reason and he does not fear his fate as he told his friend Crito. He also notes that he feels contempt for the people of mankind who think irrationally and lives a careless and free life, basing on living a life that isn’t worth living, and thus without a life without purpose, what is the point of living at all? Socrates also notes that the only one the only one whose opinion is of more value than others is the one who truly understands justice and what justice has with it, so in comparison, Socrates believes that if he tries to leave the city, people will accuse him of being a coward and he will be remembered for how he escaped the city of Athens and wasn’t ready to meet his true fate, as Socrates already told his friend Crito he is ready to die for what he did, albeit that he didn’t do anything wrong, just didn’t teach the right way the city of Athens wanted him to teach, and thus Crito, as discussed, despises him for it but continues to have a discussion with his close friend.
As The Crito goes on, Socrates
While reading The Crito we learn of the infamous philosopher Socrates being held as a criminal for his teachings in the Ancient Greek world. His wealthy friend, Crito, the one that the passage is named off of, tries to tell Socrates that his fate isn’t as close as it seems, explaining that an sufficient amount of money could lead to his freedom. Crito tries to save his life by bribing the city of Athens to free him of jail and thus ending the trial that would’ve ended his life. Socrates declines his proposal, basing that he is honoring his teachings and ideas and saying that he reaped what he sow. This decision by Socrates will be very crucial on what learning what evil is, and thus, can one defend one’s self against evil by doing evil, or the person fighting evil lose all reason because they themselves used evil to fight evil?
While in prison, Socrates talks about the Almighty God, being that Socrates is an individual guided by reason and he does not fear his fate as he told his friend Crito. He also notes that he feels contempt for the people of mankind who think irrationally and lives a careless and free life, basing on living a life that isn’t worth living, and thus without a life without purpose, what is the point of living at all? Socrates also notes that the only one the only one whose opinion is of more value than others is the one who truly understands justice and what justice has with it, so in comparison, Socrates believes that if he tries to leave the city, people will accuse him of being a coward and he will be remembered for how he escaped the city of Athens and wasn’t ready to meet his true fate, as Socrates already told his friend Crito he is ready to die for what he did, albeit that he didn’t do anything wrong, just didn’t teach the right way the city of Athens wanted him to teach, and thus Crito, as discussed, despises him for it but continues to have a discussion with his close friend.
As The Crito goes on, Socrates