Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Joan and Socrates

When Socrates was 70 years old, he was brought to trial for worshipping strange gods. He was accused of teaching young men to think dangerous thoughts and was found guilty of these "crimes" and sentenced to death. Although his friends had a plan to help him escape from prison, he refused. After spending his life searching for the meaning of right and wrong, he felt it was wrong to run away from the government's verdict. Socrates told his friends, "No greater good can happen to a man than to discuss virtue every day, and an unexamined life is not worth living."




In what ways was Socrates similar to St Joan?





4 comments:

Joanna Poon said...

hahaa.. i will say Socrates is quite stubborn, foolish in some ways. I mean one can still seek the meaning of right or wrong after he escape from the prison. Didn't he want to live longer, and wouldn't he think that it was wrong that he was accused of teaching men to think wildly?
anyway its just a bit of my opinions x)

Unknown said...

okayy you told me to come here everyday. here i comeee :]]
kinda agree with joanna.
normally a person wants to live longer of course, but everyone knows socrates is one of those unlightments thinkers (history again .__.) he should have thought different i suppose haha XD

Yvette Kong said...

not really related to this post but did joan suffer frin any mental sickness?

Miss Carmen said...

Thanks to JO, Karen and Yvette for the comments. I wish to apologize for not responding quickly enough coz I had limited access to the internet last week. Socrates aka Father of Philosophy paid his price for becoming what he is now known to the world. So did St Joan. Jo, you raised a good point by questioning Socrates' motive to die and if it had anything to do with his stubborness. My thoughts are the same as Jo and Karen. The proverb 'great minds think alike' can be well applied to 'thinkers' like Socrates and US. As to whether Joan had ever suffered from a mental illness prior to her death, it was believed to be quite possible, putting religion aside. Yvette's comment highlights an important element that contributes to St Joan's death, that is "Was Joan sane or insane?"