Democracy through Platos Apology of Socrates essays

Democracy through Plato's Apology of Socrates essays America is the oldest democracy in the world. Withstanding a civil war, two world wars, and the not-so-distant cold war, America has proved that a democracy made "of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this Earth" (Jefferson). However, this democratic society is not a society where those who reside here simply reap the benefits; there are many moral obligations of living in a democratic society. Just as our ancestors fought to create this land, we must fight for America, not with weapons, but by practicing justice, and more importantly, exercising the freedom we have to direct the government, through acts of protest, toward what we, as citizens, feel is right for this country. Plato's three pieces in the book, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, focused on the accusation, trial, and death of Socrates. Euthyphro focused on Euthyphro accusing his father of murder for killing a slave with enforces that justice needs to be for everyone, by everyone. The Apology focused on the trial and how Socrates tried to convince everyone he didn't not manipulate the youth. Lastly, in Crito, Socrates refuses to escape prison because he has been sentenced to death. This country is one that is founded on equal rights for all and justice for all. In Euthyphro, Euthyphro put his own father on trail for murder. While he is telling Socrates, who can't believe the claim, Socrates asks of the man Euthyphro's father killed, "Was this man ... A relative of yours? ... You would have never prosecuted your father for the murder of a stranger" (Plato 3). Socrates is wrong. Euthyphro did not care who the man his father killed was, he still killed someone. According to the Athenian law of the day, if you killed someone justly, it was OK, unjustly, it was murder. Euthyphro explains that when one man kills another "if unjustly, you must indict him for murder, even though he share your hearth and sit at your table" (Plato 4). Eut...