Was Socrates A Democrat?

The question of Socrates being a democrat or not, is unavoidable. He is indeed one of the greatest philosophers of all time who stood for what he believed in. He reiterated that he lived all his time going about endeavoring to persuade people, both young and the old to make important life choices and set behind our bodies, possessions, the welfare of our souls, wealth and many other things that we value as individuals and as the state as well. Most important to note is that, Socrates was not a democrat and neither was he against it. He stood by the truth and persuaded people to follow the basic moral laws and abide by them. For Socrates, the truth was supreme and did not require a majority vote to make it correct. Well, this essay supports the predisposition that Socrates was not a democrat.

Socrates pleaded with the masses not to be offended when he spoke about the truth. He believed that no man on the entire universe who meticulously opposed individuals or some kind of organized democracy and completely prevents many mistakes and evils from occurring has a chance of escaping with his life. Most importantly, Socrates believed that a true supporter of justice who is willing to excel for a short time should most importantly confine himself to a life that is private and forget about politics. In these assertions, Socrates sounded anti-democratic. However, he only meant that politics was a dangerous thing to people who consider themselves honest beings. Socrates was one such kind of person along with an inquisitive nature. Therefore, politics was a dangerous ground to tread on irrespective of the nature of governance. The city state in which Socrates lived was one of the few prosperous Greek cities and democracies basically die to the great wisdom found in the Solon’s constitution.

When the philosophy according to Socrates is well analyzed, it is evident that Socrates found democracy to be a weak form of governance. This became part of what his students such as Plato believed in. For Socrates, democracy was not subject to proof the supreme knowledge of its leaders. The destinies of people were surrendered to men very cheaply through democracy even when such men lacked experience to govern. The issue about the morality of justice concerning a policy about democracy that Socrates found fault with was the matter of taking people’s opinions as equal in terms of value. He questioned democracy and believed that the majority don’t have to be right. His belief as that there could only be one person having the truth about a particular subject and be profitable to many others. Therefore, he supported truthful principles and not democracy.

Professional 👍 essay writing service - get your essays written by expert essay writer.


See Also


#