There are many in this world who have died innocently for what they believed in and for taking actions to make a change in their society for the greater good. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in equality for all races in the United States and lead the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans. He also believed in education and in values of morality based on religion and conscience. Socrates believed in searching for the truth, in rhetoric, in questioning the world, the meaning of life, and reaching the virtue of knowledge. Both of them carried on actions that would attempt to surpass the status quo of the mentality of the society they lived in. This caused disapproval of many, which lead to enemies, and later deaths, although they were …show more content…
Socrates believed that our lives are based on conscious decisions, which were guided from our rational principles. His work shows that knowledge, is virtue, good, and truly beneficial while ignorance, is bad, which could lead to an evil action, and be truly harmful. I can connect this lesson with MLK’s speeches where he attempted to talk to society to allow them to realize that inequality of races was ignorant and harmful. MLK utilized his knowledge and faith in God, to allow the public to consider his words in reaching a society where men and women of all races lived in a peaceful, desegregated, non-violent society. Just like Socrates would question every aspect of life, so did MLK, by questioning the laws that were unjust at the time. MLK did not emphasize that one should break the laws he believed were unjust, but he would bring it to the attention of everyone to allow them to analyze the laws that were set in place. He had the idea to non-violently make changes in the governmental system and used the Law of Non-Contradiction in a manner that showed that the rights that were available for white people should be available to all mankind, regardless of
According to the Oxford dictionary, a gadfly is a fly that bites and agitates livestock. In Plato’s Apology, it is claimed that Socrates compares himself to a gadfly that is attached to the city of Athens (29e). Then, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. mentions Socrates in his letter to the clergymen and compares himself to Socrates claiming, “so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society…” (89-90). In both passages, there is an importance to be a gadfly in society and by being a gadfly, both men are able to create a change in their societies.
Martin Luther King often seeks inspiration from the Bible as well as from notorious philosophers of the Ancient Greeks such as Socrates, Plato and Odysseus. MLK was mostly inspired by how they guided their actions, making them harmonic with its justice. He will employ similar themes that pertain to lack of power and its relationship with freedom and justice: doing what is right ethically. It is very astonishing to observe how Antigone and Letter from Birmingham Jail are akin, despite being written at two different decades. In both cases, they fight for the good of society.
The speech that MLK did that day reminded Lewis of the struggles he when trough and the triumphs they have accomplished by working together. Lewis also mentions in the book “the world would NEVER FORGET.” (Lewis And Aydin 2:172).
MLK continues to demonstrate to the white, that they are easily influenced and they are wrong about “outsiders coming in,” they are not foreigners, but citizens, your neighbors. He continues to demonstrate his goal, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (4). MLK illustrates that his goal is to show that injustice is happening to African American, that his main destination is to stop it, and that one place could influence it all. Injustice is everywhere, the unfairness going on in the world, the ruthlessness of the world. He continues to use pathos to show the untruth whites do not look for, the truth they tend to hide from others.
He believed that one should never harm the person harming them. This is the equivalent of saying turn the other cheek. This was revolutionary, since it was widely agreed upon to harm the enemy and help your friends. His belief says to not harm your enemy. Socrates believed it was better to suffer than to do wrong.
MLK wants others to understand where he is coming from until they are on the other side of the word “nigger” or have to explain to their children that they cannot attend certain places and why white people are mean to black people no one will understand the difficulty of being an African American in that era. MLK understands that laws are not supposed to be broken, but he explains how some laws have been broken and others are unjust. To put into simpler terms MLK states, “any law that uplifts human personality is just.’ Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
I already knew that MLK spoke out for his peoples rights. MLK was brave leader, who spoke out against unfair rules. He wanted peace, freedom, and fair treatment for everyone. Before he started to speak out against their treatment, MLK was a baptist minister at his church.
(Modus Ponens) Socrates is like Jesus: both of them did not believe in gods of that time and both were just speaking to society, but in those speeches were hidden the great idea. Like Jesus, Socrates chose to die for his idea, not surrender norms of the society. Both men had their students, who recorded their words during their life or after death. (Analogy) Rejection of civic life in democratic
In the Crito by Plato, Socrates argues against civil disobedience, seeing it as an unjust act. Contrasting this view, Martin Luther King argues for civil disobedience against unjust laws, and seeing it as a responsibility of citizens. Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain law, commands or requests of the government. I will argue that the view of Socrates is superior to the view of Martin Luther King on the justness of civil disobedience. Using the argument against harm, I will show that even if a law is viewed as unjust, you must not repay an evil with another evil, as evident in the Crito while contrary to ideas presented by MLK.
Through becoming a teacher of the young men who followed him in Athens, Socrates effectively began to enter the public life. He was able to influence others through sharing his conclusions of justice, self-examination, and piety, and by asking relentless questions. Socrates effectively showed that an individual can live a private and a public life, even if Socrates was not directly involved in the policy-making in Athens. An individual can combine these two aspects of life in a productive way allowing her/him to live a full existence. These individuals can become teachers, politicians, and activists who use their focus on justice and piety in their private lives to advocate and create laws that promote true justice for the rest of the
was a powerful figure in the history of civil disobedience and left lasting impacts on our society. While Antigone, important in literature, was no more then the cursed daughter of Oedipus doomed like her father to be rash and selfish. It was not Antigone’s but MLK’s version of civil disobedience that made had the most profound impact; he helped end segregation and racial injustice in America through non-violence and self-enlightenment. MLK fought for justice for all and fought to insure the rights of future African
Political activists and philosophers alike have a challenging task of determining the conditions under which citizens are morally entitled to go against the law. Socrates and Martin Luther King, Jr. had different opinions on the obligation of the citizens in a society to obey the law. Although they were willing to accept the legal punishment, King believed that there are clear and definable circumstances where it would be appropriate, and sometimes mandatory, to purposely disobey unjust laws. Socrates did not. Socrates obeyed what he considered to be an unjust verdict because he believed that it was his obligation, as a citizen of Athens, to persuade or obey its Laws, no matter how dire the consequences.
Plato’s Apology is in the words of Socrates. The apology explains what Socrates though of death as he awaited his death after being condemned for not believing in God. He believed after death, one would either go to another world or be in a state of nothingness. He had the theory of death being a place where one would learn about life and talk to people that no longer walk the Earth. He supports his argument that death is a gain by explaining that he, Socrates, will get to speak to famous poets and past heroes.
Philosophical thinking uses three acts of the mind: understanding, judgement, and reason. In order to have a sound argument all of the concepts must be applied. Socrates didn’t want to please the people by saying or doing what they wanted him to say or do. Socrates thought it was not important to seek wealth or fame; he was concerned with truth and virtue. He wanted to create an impact on humanity by relying on the truth and shining a light in people’s lives, even if they put him on trial.
Socrates creates a turning point in history since pre-socratic philosophers before him were much more interested in establishing how the world works while Socrates was more concerned with how people should behave, and was called the first major philosopher of Ethics. Another turning point was that he wrote nothing because he felt that knowledge was a living, interactive thing. Socrates' method of philosophical inquiry consisted in questioning people on the positions they asserted and working them through questions into a contradiction, thus proving to them that their original assertion was wrong. Other philosopher’s before him tried to write their beliefs. Socrates follows in the footsteps of the early Sophists in making ethics his primary