Description
Samuel—-Socrates was condemned to death for supposedly corrupting the youth and refusing to accept the Gods acknowledged by Athens. Socrates was not a lawyer, yet he defended himself, as Plato showed. A wealthy Athenian acquaintance, Crito gave Socrates a chance to evade his sentence by paying the jailors and offering an escape route. To grasp the nature of Socrates’ “social contract,” it’s necessary to appreciate that, despite his outspokenness and criticism of the Athenian elite, Socrates obeyed the Athenian government’s rules. Among the advantages of being an Athenian citizen was the freedom of speech, which explains why Socrates behaved himself in the manner he did with other Athenians. Another reason was that they were shielded from invasion by the city of Athens. As a consequence of their advantages and the ability to live to a ripe old age, Socrates came to respect the law and was content with the outcome of his trial. He reasoned that evading his convictions would have been incompatible with his principles. Socrates was devoted to his city and felt his responsibility was to contribute to society via his Socratic Method. Additionally, he considered that such an act would have been unethical, which would have been detrimental to his spiritual well-being. He felt it was preferable to endure injustice than to do one since injustice corrupts the spirit. cody—John Rawls’ idea of the “Veil of Ignorance” was a thought experiment conducted to reevaluate societies’ structure. He created this thought experience knowing it is very difficult to reevaluate today’s society without personal bias from our current circumstances. Thus, Rawl asked us to imagine we are in utero completely conscious, but we have no idea what the circumstances are that we are going to be born into, whether that be health or sickness and poor and wealth. That way we can focus on a fair society for everybody rather than a focusing on luck placing us into a wealthy circumstance. With this train of thought, we can focus on what ought an ideal society for everybody would look like. We know we have created an ideal society once under the veil of ignorance, when the majority would be okay under any circumstance.
