Martin Luther King And Socrates Similarities

Having read Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and Plato’s Crito’, I would conclude that even though both men have some similarities, their beliefs, views about the world, and their outlook on the justice system were different. They were similar in the sense that both men were in jail when they gave their accounts. Both King and Socrates’ ideas of just and unjust law influenced their generation and they were also willing to die for what they believed was right. King and Socrates would respond differently to the argument that human and civil rights come from God and not the government. Since King was a believer and a Christian, he would argue that human rights come from God. Every human being created by God has natural rights

An unjust law, he argues “is any law that degrades human personality.”(king 545) King believed that people can morally disobey unjust laws depending on the circumstance they found themselves. He specifically pointed out that segregation is an example of an unjust law. Therefore, he nonviolently rejected this law through civil disobedient. King’s argument in his latter convinced people to think more about themselves and how the society changes. Meanwhile, Socrates had a completely different view about what we can and cannot do, when it comes to the law guiding a state. He said “...that it is never right to do a wrong or return a wrong or defend one’s self against injury by retaliation; or whether you dissociate yourself from any share in this view as a basis for discussion.” Socrates’ beliefs are completely different from MLK’s, he called for a total submission before the law. This reflected in his life when he was presented with the opportunity to escape from prison, but he decided to stay because he believed that the law is supreme and absolute. This was basically the possible reason why Socrates accepted the death penalty without putting up a fight. If King was in Socrates’ position in Crito, he would not have accepted the advice from Crito to escape prison either. Even though King states that “it is fair to break a law if that law is unjust,” he would have had more insight than to think it wise to dodge the American judicial