What Socrates Can Teach Us
“The beauty of Socrates’s defense speech, where he shows his integrity by refusing to stop practicing philosophy though he be ‘murdered a hundred times over,’ cannot help but turn the focus onto us, the audience, for by condemning him, we are condemning our own nature. Who are we, if we condemn a man to death merely for asking searching questions?”
I fear that the knowledge base needed to understand and to fully appreciate what is being presented is lacking in todays "educated" people. What was once called Education in the Classics is sorely missing in todays colleges and Universities. Plato, Aristotle and Socrates are barely mentioned and almost never presented in detail allowing for the comprehension of the thoughs and ideas being presented.
I truly hope I'm wrong in this assessment but I don't think so.
+1
Your statement that students are taught to challenge "what is traditional" is a perfect example of what I was alluding to. Some traditional positions a 'true' others are not. too attach all as if they are false is wrong . How to determine the truth or falsity of astatement is key to critical thinking, Just attacking what is traditional as wrong is not.
+1
Yes, there was a higher principle involved but at the same time, Athens just wanted him to go away...in my view, it wasn't worth his life in that moment in time. No good came of it.
That sacrifice was applied to everything going forward without the original context understood.