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From Socrates 'Morality Of Athenians' Consent According To Socrates

565 Words3 Pages

As Socrates address the central issue of escaping without the Athenians’ consent, he emphasizes his stance as a non-consequentialist, a person who determines rightness using reason, obligation, duty, or virtue. He does his best to avoid the consequentialist stance, which focuses on the outcomes or consequences that are used to determine the rightness or wrongness of an action. Standing firm as a non-consequentialist, Socrates made the right decision of not escaping with the reasoning of his first argument: a person must never cause harm. Socrates is contradicting himself with one of his major points that a person must never commit wrongdoings. It is difficult to find any opposition against Socrates’ first argument, especially in the moral perspective. Socrates …show more content…

If Socrates were to escape his death penalty without receiving consent, he would be committing a wrongdoing as well as harming the Athenian people with his escape. Committing wrong against another wrong never makes the wrong into a right as committing an unjust act against an unjust act never turns it into a just act. Likewise, although the jury and the Sophists- paid teachers and relativists who taught anything a person wanted to learn about- did Socrates wrong, Socrates would be committing wrong against the law if he were to escape. Hence, Socrates decision to remain in prison is justified because he is not causing any harm to anyone, including himself. Secondly, Socrates made the correct decision because life is not worth it if a person lives with a tainted soul. “Socrates reasons that escaping will not bring him happiness and a good life” (Devettere, 2009). Devettere’s statement reveals that

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