Essay --

Yike Cao PHIL 100 Dr. Hass 10/8/2013 3. For what reasons did Socrates refuse to escape from prison? Do you agree or disagree with his decision? Defend your answer. In 399BC Socrates was sentenced to death on account of corrupting the youth of Athens. By this, the authorities claimed that he was teaching the youth to question what was commonly taught to them about religion, gods and goddesses. This was coming at the end of the Peloponnesian War, which was believed to have been a mark of Athena’s (patron Goddess of Athens) fury at her people. The people at the time believed that Socrates’ teachings would only have angered her further and so they arrested Socrates and eventually sentenced him to death. In this essay, I will explain the reasons why Socrates refused to escape from prison, and why I think he should not have accepted the death penalty. After reading Plato’s The Trial and Death of Socrates, it seems that Socrates was given a choice of punishment, but he refuses to take the charges seriously and claimed he was not afraid of death and thus was forced to drink hemlock. Socrates accepted his punishment saying that no one knows what death is like, it may be better than this life and that in death his soul could be free amongst other great souls and he could continue his questioning and search for knowledge there. Socrates claims that he is right to submit to his punishment. One reason he gives is that although he has this escape route, there would not be a great deal of point. He would be unable to continue his search for knowledge in Thessaly as, firstly, he may face the same charges for corrupting youth there or the Athenian authorities could easily find him there. He thought that people would be more interested in how ... ...you have the opportunity to continue living (even if your life is not going to be the same as it was before), and that life should be the most important and sacred thing. Therefore, under the eyes of the law he was right to submit to his punishment but it seems wrong to me that he chose death when he could have chosen life. Even though many people may argue that Socrates should not have escaped; Socrates was an old man and would have died anyway. He would rather become a martyr who highlights the problems with Athenian democracy than seem like a coward and escape. In another word, Socrates’ sacrifice was necessary in order to highlight the injustices of society at that point in time. But I still believe that Socrates should have at least fought for his life and not just submitted so readily to his punishment. The end result could still be the same, or even better.