Socratic Method Assignment

Sandra Brewer

Philosophy Class

Professor Susan Phillips

12 May 2015

Socratic Method Assignment

Part 1:

Socrates says no person knowingly does evil, and therefore, all evil is ignorance.   He was right; because so many acts have been committed out of ignorance rather than evil. Here are three events that prove his point: the holocaust committed by Adolf Hitler, the assassination of JFK, and then the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Hitler killed millions of Jewish people, gypsies, and thousands of others that didn’t agree with his ignorant platform. JFK wanted to give every American the same voting rights and Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated him out of ignorance. Al –Qaeda’s agenda to attack Americans at their own doorstep, killing thousands, and destroying countless lives happened because of the group’s ignorance.

Part 2:

        If people accepted that all evil is ignorance, then the entire Justice System would be dissolved and a proper means to bestow justice would be established.  The criminals would be treated in a whole different fashion. Prison sentencing would involve more psychological based treatments, instead of the usual methods like: “slap on the wrist” or “lock them away forever”.  It would have to educate them about being aware of their ignorance, teaching them how to act appropriately, and giving them the information of how to make changes. The new system would be to teach the ignorant people, striving to make actual change, and eliminating the use of the death penalty.

References:

Nails, D. (2005, September 16). Socrates. Retrieved May 14, 2015, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/

The Socratic Method. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2015, from http://www.law.uchicago.edu/prospectives/lifeofthemind/socraticmethod