Platos Republic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Platos Republic - search ExampleSocrates was outspoken in criticizing the new government and after the Democrats took hold of post, Socrates relationship with the oligarchic flummox up made his enemies to find appropriate reasons to make him face trial. They charged him with corrupting the younker of capital of Greece through immoral ways and in spite of his articulately expressed defense, Socrates was held guilty and condemned to death. In his Apology, Plato has enter the last days of Socates life. Socrates continued to remain staunch and true to his belief system and was unwilling to go back on his past statements. He even refused the offer of exile and willingly ingested the cup of poison hemlock poison that ended his life. This authorship holds that the charges against Socrates did not have strength and that they were primarily a result of the current political strife amongst the varied claimants who wanted to lose no opportunity in claiming positions of authority in the n ewly established democracy. The defense for Socrates will be substantiated by repeatedly referring to Platos Republic because thither is considerable circumstantial evidence in this work to steer him clear of the charges of corrupting Athenian youth (p.36). We know that Socrates was charged of corrupting the youth through a few contemporary Greek sources Plato, Xenophon and the playwright Aristophanes. The Republic was born in Platos mind in his early youth while he was hopeful of becoming a politician. At this time he was much impressed with Socrates and became his pupil informally. followers the Peloponnesian war, Athens was ruled for about eight months by the Thirty Tyrants who were an oligarchic and tyrannical power group that tried to enroll Socrates as well as Plato within their group. Although Plato did not give a clear signal, Socrates openly refused to join them and very concisely became reputed for adopting anti-democratic ideas. This proved to be very dangerous for So crates, especially after the taking over of governance by the fundamental democratic set up that had soon over thrown the Thirty Tyrants. Socrates was tried by the newly formed Athenian democracy for having debased the youth, introduced new gods and for having adopted and encouraged atheism. He was convicted to death and subsequently executed, of which Plato was a witness. Plato was extremely disillusioned. The Athenians held that in having adulterate the youth Socrates encouraged the young to accompany him on his chosen path. Such developments made the youth of the day to confront the fundamentalist democracy of the period (p.248). In ascertaining whether Socrates had actually corrupted the youth in Athens, this paper relies on Platos Republic, which is a thorough analysis of the circumstances that prevailed during the time. In some ways it tidy sum be said that Socrates did teach new divinities and in some ways he did not. Socrates was ready to comply the conventional gods suc h as Athena and Zeus. In fact, all the available evidence indicates that he believed in polytheism. He was in agreement with Hesiod and Homer that these gods had physical characteristics and would always remain alive. However, his images of the gods were more illustrious as compared to the images of the gods that one understands from recitations of Homer and other groups of story tellers and god talkers that were known as muthologoi and theologoi respectively, during the period. Socrates held that the gods were wise,