Monday, December 12, 2011
Plato's Sage View of the Death Penalty
Plato would probably think that there are worse fates than death. However, I'm not sure if he would be for it or against it, just that he would view it in a rational way. His mentor, Socrates, was put to death. He and Socrates' other friends and students begged for an alternate fine in opposition to death. No such negotiation was followed through with though. Plato would have agreed with the death penalty in the correct circumstances. The reasons behind someone's sentence are what's up for debate, though, and that's when things get complicated.
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This is an extremely interesting bit of info! Although the true opinions of these wise philosophers may be hard to really examine the fact that they were in fact in a situation involving the death penalty is just wow! It would be very interesting to imagine how the opinions these individuals as well as the entire society of that time period would differ from that of a more modern day. hmm..
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