Was Socrates a Martyr Essay

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Trial of Socrates

Socrates thought he was being tried because he was making the Athenian leaders uncomfortable by asking them to know themselves and seek the truth instead of always being pleased with themselves. He asserted that they were more interested in pursuing their own will than God’s will and this is what upset them—they did not like being accused by a philosopher. They, for their part, said they were putting Socrates on trial for corrupting the youth—so basically they were projecting onto him what they themselves were doing, and he knew it.

Though Socrates knew what the Athenian jury was up to he showed his respect for them nonetheless by accepting the verdict—even though he still railed against them. He said that he would rather “obey God than men” because he understood that God’s will was more important than the wills of men. God’s will is pure and good whereas men’s wills are often conflicted, corrupt, and self-interested. Still, Socrates understood that in accepting the decision of the jury he was indeed accepting the will of God, as there was no voice of the Oracle within him telling him to resist it. To circumvent the decision of the state would be to cause revolution and that was not Socrates’ aim or intention.

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His aim was to speak the truth and to move his followers to examine themselves in the light of God’s truth to see whether they were in conformity or out of step with God’s truth. This he did and for this reason he was sentenced to death.

Thus, Socrates could be considered a martyr because he was killed for teaching the truth. He accepted his punishment though he justified himself completely in his own defense. The jury was not moved by his words. As he was put to death for a cause, a teaching, a way of life—that way being the way to God—the striving towards the Ideal—he became a martyr for philosophy, the philosophy in fact that laid the foundation for Western thought.







 

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