Plato s Letter From Birmingham Jail - 1521 Words

As a citizen, it is our obligation to serve the government and to follow the laws but to also throw off such government when it is being wrong and unjust. Plato’s dialogue in the Crito shows Socrates’ views on his obligations to the government and in Martin Luther King’s â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail,† we see a different set of obligations depicted by King. Socrates strongly believed that his life was to be dedicated to the government under no other circumstances but on the other hand, Martin Luther King respected his obligations as a citizen but did not hesitate to react when the system was unfair and corrupt. In order to give a little hindsight, I will discuss the dialogues between Socrates and Crito in Plato’s â€Å"The Crito†; the scene beings with Crito waking up Socrates’ in his jail cell and questioning how he seemed so calm and peaceful when the time for his execution was approaching at a rapid pace. Socrates, as calm as ever, replies that he is willing to die if it is the will of God. Crito begins to try to convince Socrates to escape from his cell by using different reasoning’s. Crito explains that if he rejected the idea of escaping and was executed, he would lose a loving and loyal friend and he would have to live with the fault of failing to save his life. On a more ethical level, Crito present more compelling cases: firstly, if he had stayed, he would helping his enemies in wronging him unjustly, and would then be acting unjustly himself; and second, that heShow MoreRelated Exploration of Civil Disobedience in Sophocles Antigone, Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail, and Platos From Crito580 Words   |  3 PagesExploration of Civil Disobedience in Sophocles Antigone, Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail, and Platos From Crito Civil disobedience spawns a major and widely debated issue by many who established by well-known intelligent scholars and many examples of civil disobedience become displayed. The acts of civil disobedience can be noted in major works such as Sophocles?s Antigone, King?s ?Letter from Birmingham Jail?, or even from Plato?s ?from Crito?. A specific claim exemplified throughout these worksRead MoreMartin Luther King Jr s Letter From Birmingham Jail1665 Words   |  7 PagesKing Jr. wanted freedom from segregation and Plato wanted freedom from ignorance. They both wanted justice, and knew that it was immoral to take deny another being justice. For example, Plato has said, â€Å"†¦ Injustice is always an evil and dishonor to him who acts unjustly.† This is similar to what Martin Luther King Jr has also stated in â€Å"Letters from Birmingham Jail†, â€Å"We have a moral responsibility to disobey any law that conflicts with the law of god.† (Paragraph 16) Both Plato and King followed similarRead MoreSummary Of People Speak By Howard Zinn1187 Words   |  5 Pages Plato in what we spoke of about, talked about what was three people’s ideas of what they thought justice meant. The first said that justice was â€Å"giving a person what is owed†. The second response was â€Å"doing good to friends and bad to enemies†. The third person said that justice was â€Å"advantage of the stronger. However, Plato’s definition of justice was a â€Å"well ordered soul†. Moreover, Plato had the concept of the â€Å"tripartite soul†, which was one’s desires, emotion, and intellect. Plato believedRead MoreThe True Father Of Western Thought984 Words   |  4 PagesSocrates,the philosopher from ancient Athens and arguably the true father of western thought. He is the son of a stonemason, and a midwife born around 469BC. Socrates was famously odd. In a city that made a cult of physical beauty the phil osopher was disturbingly ugly. Socrates taught that beauty and goodness should be determined by usefulness and fitness of function, rather than by mere appearance or personal feelings of delight. Socrates had a pot-belly, a weird walk, swivelling eyes and hairyRead MoreDr. Martin Luther King Jr1952 Words   |  8 PagesWhen people get incarcerated for a period of time, usually they do a lot of thinking and writing. Dr Martin Luther King Jr was no different. When he got jailed in Birmingham in 1963, he penned Letter from Birmingham Jail, which explained his positioning on his nonviolent approach to fighting for Civil Rights. Along with Plato, Descartes, Mills and Rousseau, Dr Martin Luther King Jr was one of the greatest philosophers in history because his nonviolent approach to fighting for Civil Rights (for