Philosphy Discussion Week Three

Phil-DB3

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Socratic Method

Part One

The Socratic Method refers to an approach Socrates took to teaching his students where he asked a series of questions in order to allow his student to reach a logical conclusion. Socrates also believed that people do not knowingly do evil (Maxwell, 2008). Based on this viewpoint all act of evil or acts of wrong are the result of a person’s ignorance. While many people immediately disagree with Socrates on this point but after deeper thought I tend to agree with this statement. Socrates is not saying people don’t do evil but would not do the evil act if they had the foresight to see the consequences of their actions.

If a person commits a crime they first weigh out the potential benefits of committing the crime over the potential consequences’. While they understand robbing a bank could result in prison time if they could see the future and see the bank robbery would end up with a ten year prison sentence that caused major suffering to the person and their family, they would not in fact commit the act. In their ignorance they believe they have carefully planned the robbery and nothing bad will happen. If they could see the evil they would not commit the act.

Part Two

If people accepted that all evil is ignorance, the implications that would have on the justice system is none. Just because the criminal act emerged due to ignorance does not mean the person should not pay for the crime they committed. Evil is wrong and wrong should be punished. While the evil deed may have eventuated from ignorance at some point the criminal made a choice and this choice was the crime. Unless a person is truly mentally ill at the time of the crime criminals must pay for their crimes.

The death penalty in itself may be evil but it is a legal consequence in the United Sates when a person commits a capital crime. For some the death penalty is wrong or evil in itself while for the others it’s a just consequence for capital murder. Just because someone is evil when they commit a heinous murder does not mitigate their blame. Even if evil is ignorance the act of committing a capital murder is wrong and deserves to be punished. That punishment for some is the death penalty.

References

Maxwell, M. (2008). A Socratic Perspective on the Nature of Human Evil. Retrieved February

23, 2014 from http://www.socraticmethod.net/socratic_essay_nature_of_human_evil.htm