Friday, January 05, 2007

Socrates Death



The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David (1787).








The trial and execution of Socrates are the climax of his career and the central event of the dialogs of Plato. According to Plato, however, both were unnecessary. Socrates admits in court that he could have avoided his trial in the first place by abandoning philosophy and going home to mind his own business. After his court conviction, he could have avoided the death penalty by agreeing to pay a small fine, and once in prison he could have escaped. Socrates participated in his famous martyrdom every step of the way, and his story supplies, one way or the other, the foundation for western philosophy.