Innocent Socrates

            In class on today, it was brought to our attention that Socrates, who is arguably one of the best philosophers was charged with two crimes that ultimately lead to his death. Socrates was charged with corrupting the youth in Athens and impiety/not believing in the gods of the state. These crimes came up because authorities thought that the way he was teaching was essentially mental abuse. In my eyes, this makes absolutely no sense because the children were not forced to go to the workshops with him, these children voluntarily went. No one would voluntarily do something if they felt as if it was causing pain upon them. The jurors in Athens did not see this the same way and the overall vote was to kill Socrates for the crimes he committed. A few short days after his trail, he drank poison hemlock which shut down all of his systems and that was the end of Socrates.

            Socrates should not have been found guilty for helping and teaching the youth. Athens liked to produce very smart children and Socrates was helping this happen but because of the way he did it, he was sentenced to death. Just because people couldn’t see eye to eye with the philosopher, he was killed, which does not make any sense. The ultimate decider on whether or not he should have been killed is how the children felt about him. If they thought he was aggressive and forceful than, he should have been killed. If they didn’t feel this way, killing Socrates was very inappropriate and should have been a crime in itself. I know that I would have voted him to be innocent because all he was doing was bettering the future of Athens society.