Analysis Of Socrates Letter From Birmingham Jail

Muhammad Aiman Azani
Socrates on Civil Disobedience
In this paper, I will first discuss the descriptions of civil disobedience as presented in Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. Second, I will demonstrate that Socrates does not practice civil disobedience, as opposed to the King in his letter “To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience” (King). Finally, for the purpose of this paper, I will offer my explanations for my claims based on the Socrates’s arguments in the Apology and King’s letter from the Birmingham jail only.
In the letter from a Birmingham jail, King states that there are two types of laws – just and unjust law. He states that one has moral responsibility to obey just law and conversely, he also states that one has moral responsibility to disobey unjust law.

He was wrongly accused of impiety and corrupting the young men of Athens. Unlike Socrates, King was intentionally disobeying the law in order to protect the colored people from unjust law. Since the condition that the court offers to Socrates degrades his life, the condition can be classified as unjust. Next, I will offer my explanations, although Socrates was given unjust condition by the court if he wants his freedom, he does not means to disobey it and thus proves King’s claims about Socrates is not true.
My first argument is Socrates prioritizes god law over men law. On the beginning of his defenses, Socrates had told by the Oracle of Delphi that he is the wisest of all men. However, Socrates does not believe Oracle’s words and then he goes out to find someone wiser. He had investigated the politicians, poets and craftsmen in order to understand the meaning of the Delphi’s claims (Apology 22a – d). However, he found out that none of them were wiser. By showing people who thought they were wise but actually they are not, this proves that Socrates is following god