Two Statements of Ethical Theory

The position of Socrates, whose status as a philosopher is well understood, is that of the perpetual critic whose role it is to awaken inquirys about the wisdom of prevailing semipolitical policy. The fact that Socrates is in the position of having to "apologize" for his views shows that the philosopher is positioned as an antagonist against prevailing political authority. He is in the position of forever obliging politicians to question whether their decisions are proper. Although Dr. queen was known more as a political activist and preacher than philosopher per se, the earn shows that he alike put himself in the position of questioning political wisdom. King does not shrink from the label of "outsider coming in" but rather embraces that label. Not only that, he criticizes clergymen who " deport blemished and scarred [the church] with amicable neglect and through fear of being nonconformists" (Letter). In an effort to be a part of society, the church has abdicated its role as the carrier of social scruples. In other words, King positions the church as the failed conscience of society. He intends to reposition it, to interrogate society's decisions about how to organize itself.

Poets may be able to create phrases that oblige society to crawfish another look at itself. And in that regard, the Apology and the Letter each contain language that is typifyt to catch the ear of a politically undiscerning pub

---. why We Can't Wait. New York: Mentor, 1964.

The antagonistic relationship amidst the philosopher and the state on one hand and the philosopher and sophist on the other is vividly demonstrated by Socrates' perilous choices offered in the Apology. The situation in that location is that if Socrates provide stop provoking people into admitting that their ideas are wrong-headed, consequently he tidy sum go free. A perfect political solution. Or if he must provoke, since he is so favorable of doing that, let him do it in exile, safely away from Athens, where he is causing all this trouble. A perfect bit of sophism. besides Socrates, as a philosopher, sees the political trap, just as he sees the contradiction hidden behind the sophistic argument.

It does not assume a genius to figure out that if Athens can exile him, so can other cities: "what a lifetime should I lead . . . wandering from city to city . . . For I am quite sure that into whatever place I go . . . young men will come to me; and . . . their elders will drive me out" (Apology 58). As for becoming free and silent, that would mean stopping philosophy, which is a search for "wisdom and truth and the superlative improvement of the soul" (48). Besides, the unexamined (= unprovoked) life is not worth nourishment (56), or in other words, a fate worsened than death. To see the unjust sentence through, therefore, both exposes its injustice and insists on the idea that the search for wisdom, or philosophy, is a positive virtue. Politicians, on the other hand, see virtue in simply verbalise policy.

In the midst of a mighty struggle to justify our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have perceive many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.

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